Harriet Potter and the Halfblood Prince
by jacquisup
Summary: It's sixth year and another war and is going to be harder than last time
1. Chapter 1

7/12/19- 7/31/19

Harriet was in her room asleep the Daily Prophet.

_HARRIET POTTER: THE CHOSEN ONE?_

_Rumors continue to fly about the mysterious recent disturbance at the Ministry of Magic, during which He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was sighted once more._

_"We're not allowed to talk about it, don't ask me anything," said one agitated Obliviator, who refused to give his name as he left the Ministry last night._

_Nevertheless, highly placed sources within the Ministry have confirmed that the disturbance centered on the fabled Hall of Prophecy._

_Though Ministry spokeswizards have hitherto refused even to confirm the existence of such a place, a growing number of the Wizarding community believe that the Death Eaters now serving sentences in Azkaban for trespass and attempted theft were attempting to steal a prophecy. The nature of that prophecy is unknown, although speculation is rife that it concerns Harriet Potter, the only person ever known to have survived the Killing Curse, and who is also known to have been at the Ministry on the night in question. Some are going so far as to call Potter 'the Chosen One,' believing that the prophecy names her as the only one who will be able to rid us of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named._

_The current whereabouts of the prophecy, if it exists, are unknown, although (cont. page 2, column 5)_

_A second newspaper lay beside the first. This one bore the headline:_

_SCRIMGEOUR SUCCEEDS FUDGE_

_Most of this front page was taken up with a large black-and-white picture of a man with a lionlike mane of thick hair and a rather ravaged face. The picture was moving-the man was waving at the ceiling._

_Rufus Scrimgeour, previously Head of the Auror office in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, has succeeded Cornelius Fudge as Minister of Magic. The appointment has largely been greeted with enthusiasm by the Wizarding community, though rumors of a rift between the new Minister and Albus Dumbledore, newly reinstated Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, surfaced within hours of Scrimgeour taking office._

_Scrimgeour's representatives admitted that he had met with Dumbledore at once upon taking possession of the top job, but refused to comment on the topics under discussion. Albus Dumbledore is known to (cont. page 3, column 2)_

_To the left of this paper sat another, which had been folded so that a story bearing the title MINISTRY GUARANTEES STUDENTS' SAFETY safety was visible._

_Newly appointed Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, spoke today of the tough new measures taken by his Ministry to ensure the safety of students returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this autumn._

_"For obvious reasons, the Ministry will not be going into detail about its stringent new security plans," said the Minister, although an insider confirmed that measures include defensive spells and charms, a complex array of counter-curses, and a small task force of Aurors dedicated solely to the protection of Hogwarts School._

_Most seem reassured by the new Minister's tough stand on student safety. Said Mrs. Augusta Longbottom, "My grandson, Neville... boyfriend of Harriet Potter, incidentally, who fought the Death Eaters alongside him at the Ministry in June and -_

Harriet grunted in her sleep and her face slid down the window an inch or so, making her glasses still more lopsided, but she did not wake up. An alarm clock, repaired by Harriet several years ago, ticked loudly on the sill, showing one minute to eleven. Beside it, held in place by Harriet's relaxed hand, was a piece of parchment covered in thin, slanting writing. Harriet had read this letter so often since its arrival three days ago that although it had been delivered in a tightly furled scroll, it now lay quite flat.

Dumbledore had written to her three days ago with the paper next to it. It just seemed too good to be true that he was going to be rescued from the Dursleys after a mere fortnight of their company. She could not shrug off the feeling that something was going to go wrong-her reply to Dumbledore's letter might have gone astray; Dumbledore could be prevented from collecting her; the letter might turn out not to be from Dumbledore at all, but a trick or joke or trap.

Harriet had not been able to face packing and then being let down and having to unpack again. The only gesture he had made to the possibility of a journey was to shut her snowy owl, Hedwig, safely in her cage.

The minute hand on the alarm clock reached the number twelve and, at that precise moment, the street-lamp outside the window went out.

It just seemed too good to be true that she was going to be rescued from the Dursleys after a mere fortnight of their company. She could not shrug off the feeling that something was going to go wrong-his reply to Dumbledore's letter might have gone astray; Dumbledore could be prevented from collecting him; the letter might turn out not to be from Dumbledore at all, but a trick or joke or trap. Harriet had not been able to face packing and then being let down and having to unpack again. The only gesture she had made to the possibility of a journey was to shut her snowy owl, Hedwig, safely in her cage.

Harriet awoke as though the sudden darkness were an alarm. Hastily straightening her glasses and unsticking her cheek from the glass, she pressed her nose against the window instead and squinted down at the pavement. A tall figure in a long, billowing cloak was walking up the garden path.

Harriet jumped up as though she had received an electric shock, knocked over her chair, and started snatching anything and everything within reach from the floor and throwing it into the trunk. Then as she lobbed a set of robes, two spellbooks, and a packet of clasps across the room, the doorbell rang.

Downstairs in the living room his Uncle Vernon shouted, "Who the blazes is calling at this time of night?"

Harriet froze with a brass telescope in one hand and a pair of trainers in the other.

She clambered over the trunk and wrenched open her bedroom door in time to hear a deep voice say, "Good evening. You must be Mr. Dursley. I daresay Harriet has told you I would be coming for her?"

Harriet ran down the stairs two at a time, coming to an abrupt halt several steps from the bottom.

There in the doorway stood a tall, thin man with waist-length silver hair and beard. Half-moon spectacles were perched on his crooked nose, and he was wearing a long black traveling cloak and a pointed hat. Vernon Dursley, whose moustache was quite as bushy as Dumbledore's, though black, and who was wearing a puce dressing gown, was staring at the visitor as though he could not believe his tiny eyes.

"Judging by your look of stunned disbelief, Harriet did not warn you that I was coming," said Dumbledore pleasantly. "However, let us assume that you have invited me warmly into your house. It is unwise to linger overlong on doorsteps in these troubled times."

He stepped smartly over the threshold and closed the front door behind him.

"It is a long time since my last visit," said Dumbledore, peering down his crooked nose at Uncle Vernon.

"I must say, your agapanthus are flourishing." Vernon Dursley said nothing at all.

Harriet did not doubt that speech would return to her, and soon — the vein pulsing in her uncles temple was reaching danger point — but something about Dumbledore seemed to have robbed him temporarily of breath.

"Ah, good evening Harriet," said Dumbledore, looking up at her through his half-moon glasses with a most satisfied expression. "Excellent, excellent."

These words seemed to rouse Uncle Vernon. It was clear that as far as he was concerned, any man who could look at Harriet and say "excellent" was a man with whom he could never see eye to eye.

"I don't mean to be rude —" she began, in a tone that threatened rudeness in every syllable.

"—yet, sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often," Dumbledore finished the sentence gravely. "Best to say nothing at all, my dear man. Ah, and this must be Petunia."

The kitchen door had opened, and there stood Harriet's aunt, wearing rubber gloves and a housecoat over her nightdress. Her rather horsey face registered nothing but shock.

"Albus Dumbledore," said Dumbledore, when Uncle Vernon failed to effect an introduction. "We have corresponded, of course."

"And this must be your son, Dudley?"

Dudley had that moment peered round the living room door, his large, blond head rising out of the stripy collar of his pyjamas looked oddly disembodied, his mouth gaping in astonishment and fear. Dumbledore waited a moment or two, apparently to see whether any of the Dursleys were going to say anything, but as the silence stretched on he smiled.

"Shall we assume that you have invited me into your sitting room?"

Dudley scrambled out of the way as Dumbledore passed him. Harriet still clutching the telescope and trainers, jumped the last few stairs and followed Dumbledore, who had settled himself in the armchair nearest the fire and was taking in the surroundings with an expression of benign interest.

"Aren't — aren't we leaving, sir?" Harriet asked anxiously.

"Yes, indeed we are, but there are a few matters we need to discuss first," said Dumbledore. "And I would prefer not to do so in the open. We shall trespass upon your aunt and uncle's hospitality only a little longer."

"You will, will you?"

Vernon Dursley had entered the room, Petunia at his shoulder, and Dudley skulking behind them both.

"Yes," said Dumbledore simply, "I shall."

He drew his wand so rapidly that Harriet barely saw it; with a casual flick, the sofa zoomed forward and knocked the knees out from under all three of the Dursleys so that they collapsed upon it in a heap. Another flick of the wand and the sofa zoomed back to its original position.

"We may as well be comfortable," said Dumbledore pleasantly.

As he replaced his wand in his pocket, Harriet saw that his hand was blackened and shrivelled; it looked as though his flesh had been burned away.

"Sir — what happened to your —?"

"Later, Harriet," said Dumbledore. "Please sit down."

Harriet took the remaining armchair, choosing not to look at the Dursleys, who seemed stunned into silence.

"I would assume that you were going to offer me refreshment," Dumbledore said to Uncle Vernon, "but the evidence so far suggests that that would be optimistic to the point of foolishness."

A third twitch of the wand, and a dusty bottle and five glasses appeared in midair. The bottle tipped and poured a generous measure of honey-colored liquid into each of the glasses, which then floated to each person in the room.

"Madam Rosmertas finest oak-matured mead," said Dumbledore, raising his glass to Harry, who caught hold of his own and sipped. He had never tasted anything like it before, but enjoyed it immensely. The Dursleys, after quick, scared looks at one another, tried to ignore their glasses completely, a difficult feat, as they were nudging them gently on the sides of their heads.

"Well, Harriet," said Dumbledore, turning toward him, "a difficulty has arisen which I hope you will be able to solve for us. By us, I mean the Order of the Phoenix. But first of all I must tell you that Sirius's will was discovered a week ago and that he left you everything he owned."

Over on the sofa, Uncle Vernon's head turned, but Harriet did not look at him, nor could he think of anything to say except, "Oh. Right."

"This is, in the main, fairly straightforward," Dumbledore went on. "You add a reasonable amount of gold to your account at gringotts, and you inherit all of Sirius's personal possessions. The slightly problematic part of the legacy —"

"Her godfather's dead?" said Uncle Vernon loudly from the sofa.

Dumbledore and Harriet both turned to look at him. The glass of mead was now knocking quite insistently on the side of Vernon's head; he attempted to beat it away.

"He's dead? Her godfather?"

"Yes," said Dumbledore. He did not ask Harriet why she had not confided in the Dursleys. "Our problem," he continued to Harriet, as if there had been no interruption, "is that Sirius also left you number twelve, Grimmauld Place."

"She's been left a house?" said Uncle Vernon greedily, his small eyes narrowing, but nobody answered him.

"You can keep using it as headquarters," said Harriet "I don't care. You can have it, I don't really want it."

Harriet never wanted to set foot in number twelve, Grimmauld Place again if she could help it. She thought she would be haunted forever by the memory of Sirius prowling its dark musty rooms alone, imprisoned within the place he had wanted so desperately to leave.

"That is generous," said Dumbledore. "We have, however, vacated the building temporarily."

"Why?"

"Well," said Dumbledore, ignoring the mutterings of Uncle Vernon, who was now being rapped smartly over the head by the persistent glass of mead,

"Black family tradition decreed that the house was handed down the direct line, to the next male with the name of 'Black.' Sirius was the very last of the line as his younger brother, Regulus, predeceased him and both were childless. While his will makes it perfectly plain that he wants you to have the house, it is nevertheless possible that some spell or enchantment has been set upon the place to ensure that it cannot be owned by anyone other than a pureblood."

"I bet there has," she said.

"Quite," said Dumbledore. "And if such an enchantment exists, then the ownership of the house is most likely to pass to the eldest of Sirius's living relatives, which would mean his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange."

Without realizing what she was doing, Harriet sprang to her feet; the telescope and trainers in her lap rolled across the floor.

"No," she said.

"Well, obviously we would prefer that she didn't get it either," said Dumbledore calmly. "The situation is fraught with complications. We do not know whether the enchantments we ourselves have placed upon it, for example, making it Unplottable, will hold now that ownership has passed from Sirius's hands. It might be that Bellatrix will arrive on the doorstep at any moment. Naturally we had to move out until such time as we have clarified the position."

"But how are you going to find out if I'm allowed to own it?"

"Fortunately," said Dumbledore, "there is a simple test."

He placed his empty glass on a small table beside his chair, but before he could do anything else, Uncle Vernon shouted, "Will you get these ruddy things off us?"

Harriet looked around; all three of the Dursleys were cowering with their arms over their heads as their glasses bounced up and down on their skulls, their contents flying everywhere.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Dumbledore politely, and he raised his wand again. All three glasses vanished. "But it would have been better manners to drink it, you know."

It looked as though Uncle Vernon was bursting with any number of unpleasant retorts, but he merely shrank back into the cushions with Aunt Petunia and Dudley and said nothing, keeping his small piggy eyes on Dumbledore's wand.

"You see," Dumbledore said, turning back to Harriet and again speaking as though Uncle Vernon had not uttered, "if you have indeed inherited the house, you have also inherited —"

He flicked his wand for a fifth time. There was a loud crack, and a house-elf appeared, with a snout for a nose, giant bat's ears, and enormous bloodshot eyes, crouching on the Dursleys' shag carpet and covered in grimy rags. Aunt Petunia let out a hair-raising shriek. Dudley drew his large, bare, pink feet off the floor and sat with them raised almost above his head, as though he thought the creature might run up his pajama trousers, and Uncle Vernon bellowed, "What the hell is that?"

"Kreacher," finished Dumbledore.

"Kreacher won't, Kreacher won't, Kreacher won't!"croaked the house-elf, quite as loudly as Uncle Vernon, stamping his long, gnarled feet and pulling his ears. "Kreacher belongs to Miss Bellatrix, oh yes, Kreacher belongs to the Blacks, Kreacher wants his new mistress, Kreacher won't go to the Potter brat, Kreacher won't, won't, won't —"

"As you can see, Harriet," said Dumbledore loudly, over Kreacher's continued croaks of "wont, won't, won't,"

"Kreacher is showing a certain reluctance to pass into your ownership."

"I don't care," said Harriet again, looking with disgust at the writhing, stamping house-elf. "I don't want him."

"Won't, won't, won't, won't —"

"You would prefer him to pass into the ownership of Bellatrix Lestrange? Bearing in mind that he has lived at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix for the past year?"

"Won't, won't, won't, won't —"

Harriet stared at Dumbledore

"Give him an order," said Dumbledore. "If he has passed into your ownership, he will have to obey. If not, then we shall have to think of some other means of keeping him from his rightful mistress."

"Won't, won't, won't, WON'T!" Kreacher's voice had risen to a scream.

Harriet could think of nothing to say, except,

"Kreacher, shut up!"

It looked for a moment as though Kreacher was going to choke. He grabbed his throat, his mouth still working furiously, his eyes bulging.

After a few seconds of frantic gulping, he threw himself face forward onto the carpet (Aunt Petunia whimpered) and beat the floor with his hands and feet, giving himself over to a violent, but entirely silent, tantrum.

"Well, that simplifies matters," said Dumbledore cheerfully.

"It means that Sirius knew what he was doing. You are the rightful owner of number twelve, Grimmauld Place and of Kreacher."

"Do I — do I have to keep him with me?" Harriet asked, aghast, us Kreacher thrashed around at his feet.

"Not if you don't want to," said Dumbledore. "If I might make a suggestion, you could send him to Hogwarts to work in the kitchen there. In that way, the other house-elves could keep an eye on him."

"Yeah," said Harriet in relief, "yeah, I'll do that. Er — Kreacher — I want you to go to Hogwarts and work in the kitchens there with the other house-elves."

Kreacher, who was now lying flat on his back with his arms and legs in the air, gave Harriet one upside-down look of deepest loathing and, with another loud crack, vanished.

"Good," said Dumbledore. "There is also the matter of the hippogriff, Buckbeak. Hagrid has been looking after him since Sirius died, but Buckbeak is yours now, so if you would prefer to make different arrangements —"

"No," said Harriet at once, "he can stay with Hagrid. I think Buckbeak would prefer that."

"Hagrid will be delighted," said Dumbledore, smiling. "He was thrilled to see Buckbeak again. Incidentally, we have decided, in the interests of Buckbeak's safety, to rechristen him 'Witherwings' for the time being, though I doubt that the Ministry would ever guess he is the hippogriff they once sentenced to death. Now, Harriet is your trunk packed?"

"Erm…"

"Doubtful that I would turn up?" Dumbledore suggested shrewdly.

"I'll just go and — er — finish off," said Harriet hastily, hurrying to pick up her fallen telescope and trainers.

It took her a little over ten minutes to track down everything she needed; at last she had managed to extract her Invisibility Cloak from under the bed, screwed the top back on her jar of color-change ink, and forced the lid of her trunk shut on her cauldron. Then, heaving her trunk in one hand and holding Hedwig's cage in the other, she made her way back downstairs.

She was disappointed to discover that Dumbledore was not waiting in the hall, which meant that she had to return to the living room.

Nobody was talking.

Dumbledore was humming quietly, apparently quite at his ease, but the atmosphere was thicker than cold custard, and Harriet did not dare look at the Dursleys as she said,

"Professor — I'm ready now."

"Good," said Dumbledore.

"Just one last thing, then." And he turned to speak to the Dursleys once more.

"As you will no doubt be aware, Harriet comes of age in a year's time —"

"No," said Aunt Petunia, speaking for the first time since Dumbledore's arrival.

"I'm sorry?" said Dumbledore politely.

"No, she doesn't. She's a month younger than Dudley, and Dudders doesn't turn eighteen until the year after next."

"Ah," said Dumbledore pleasantly, "but in the Wizarding world, we come of age at seventeen."

Uncle Vernon muttered,

"Preposterous," but Dumbledore ignored him.

"Now, as you already know, the wizard called Lord Voldemort has returned to this country. The Wizarding community is currently in a state of open warfare. Harriet, whom Lord Voldemort has already attempted to kill on a number of occasions, is in even greater danger now than the day when I left her upon your doorstep fifteen years ago, with a letter explaining about her parents' murder and expressing the hope that you would care for her as though she were your own."

Dumbledore paused, and although his voice remained light and calm, and he gave no obvious sign of anger, Harriet felt a kind of chill emanating from her and noticed that the Dursleys drew very slightly closer together.

"You did not do as I asked. You have never treated Harriet as a daughter. She has known nothing but neglect and often cruelty at your hands. The best that can be said is that she has at least escaped the appalling damage you have inflicted upon the unfortunate girl sitting between you."

Both Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon looked around instinctively, as though expecting to see someone other than Dudley squeezed between them.

"Us — mistreat Dudders? What d'you —?" began Uncle Vernon furiously, but Dumbledore raised his ringer for silence, a silence which fell as though he had struck Uncle Vernon dumb.

"The magic I evoked fifteen years ago means that Harriet has a powerful protection while she can still call this house 'home.' However miserable she has been here, however unwelcome, however badly treated, you have at least, grudgingly, allowed her houseroom. This magic will cease to operate the moment that Harriet turns seventeen; in other words, at the moment she becomes a woman. I ask only this: that you allow Harriet to return, once more, to this house, before her seventeenth birthday, which will ensure that the protection continues until that time."

None of the Dursleys said anything. Dudley was frowning slightly, as though he was still trying to work out when he had ever been mistreated.

Uncle Vernon looked as though he had something stuck in his throat; Aunt Petunia, however, was oddly flushed.

While Harriet looked at her aunt she wondered if she really didn't like her or if she cared about her. Then she mentally shook her head.

"Well, Harriet time for us to be off," said Dumbledore at last, standing up and straightening his long black cloak. "Until we meet again," he said to the Dursleys, who looked as though that moment could wait forever as far as they were concerned, and after doffing his hat, he swept from the room.

"Bye," said Harriet hastily to the Dursleys, and followed Dumbledore, who paused beside Harriet's trunk, upon which Hedwig's cage was perched.

"We do not want to be encumbered by these just now," he said, pulling out his wand again. "I shall send them to the Burrow to await us there. However, I would like you to bring your Invisibility Cloak… just in case."

Harriet extracted her cloak from her trunk with some difficulty, trying not to show Dumbledore the mess within. When she had stuffed it into an inside pocket of her jacket, Dumbledore waved his wand and the trunk, cage and Hedwig vanished. Dumbledore then waved his wand again, and the front door opened into cool, misty darkness.

"And now, Harriet, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptess, adventure."


	2. Chapter 2

After the door was shut they started to go to the end of Privet Drive.

"Take my arm Harriet, we're going to apparate somewhere." Dumbledore said.

So she took hold of his arm as told. Then she was gone. When she was back she was somewhere else.

"I'm quite impressed Ms. Potter, most people vomit after their first apparition." Dumbledore said.

"Can't imagine why. But that also might explain how I ended up on the school roof when I was eight with accidental magic." she said.

Dumbledore looked at her in shock.

"You apparated with accidental magic?"

She turned a little red and nodded.

"That is quite a strong thing Harriet. I didn't do anything like that." he said. "But anyway, you must be wondering why I summoned you here."

"Actually sir after six years I sort've just go with it." she said.

When they got to a house that was opened Dumbledore took out his wand.

"Wands out Harriet."

She took out her wand and followed Dumbledore to the inside.

"Horace?" he said.

Then Harriet looked up and felt something on her forehead. She was about to put her hand on it but Dumbledore did it first. Then he tasted it and turned around.

He saw a chair and walked closer to it. Then he put his wand on it.

"Merlin's beard!" someone said and became a man in a nightgown.

"You don't need to disfigure me, Albus."

"Well I must say you made a very convincing armchair, Horace." Dumbledore said smiling.

"It's all in the upholstery."

"I come by this stuffing naturally."

"What gave me away?" the man asked.

"Dragon's blood." Dumbledore said pointing up to the ceiling.

Then Dumbledore looked next to him.

"Oh yes, introduction. Harriet this is Horace Slughorn. Horace, well you know who this is."

"Harriet Potter." Horace said.

"So for love of theatrics, Horace... You're, by any chance, waiting for someone else, were you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Someone else? I'm sure I don't know what you mean. Alright. The Death Eaters have been trying to recruit me for over a year. Do you know what's that like? You can only say no to these people so many times. So I never stay anywhere more than a week. The Muggles who own this place are in the Canary Islands." Slughorn said.

"Well, I think we should put it back in order for them, don't you?" Dumbledore said.

Slughorn looked around.

"Yes. Fine."

Then Dumbledore waved his wand and everything moved to where they belong.

"That was fun. Do you mind if I use the loo?" Dumbledore said.

"No, of course. Don't think I don't know why you're here, Albus. The answer is still no. Absolutely, and unequivanetly, no." Slughorn said.

Then he looked at Harriet.

"Even though you're a girl you still look just like your father, except your eyes of course. You've got-"

"My mothers eyes I know." she said.

"Hmpf. Yes, well. You shouldn't have favorites as a teacher, of course, but she was one of mine. Your mother," Slughorn added, in answer to Harriet's questioning look. "Lily Evans. One of the brightest I ever taught. Vivacious, you know. Charming girl. I used to tell her she ought to have been in my House. Very cheeky answers I used to get back too."

"Which was your House?"

"I was Head of Slytherin," said Slughorn. "Oh, now," he went on quickly, seeing the expression on Harriet's face and wagging a stubby ringer at her, "don't go holding that against me! You'll be Gryffindor like her, I suppose? Yes, it usually goes in families. Not always, though. Ever heard of Sirius Black? You must have done-been in the papers for the last couple of years-died a few weeks ago -"

It was as though an invisible hand had twisted Harry's intestines and held them tight.

"Well, anyway, he was a big pal of your father's at school. The whole Black family had been in my House, but Sirius ended up in Gryffindor! Shame-he was a talented boy. I got his brother, Regulus, when he came along, but I'd have liked the set."

He sounded like an enthusiastic collector who had been outbid at auction. Apparently lost in memories, he gazed at the opposite wall, turning idly on the spot to ensure an even heat on his backside.

"Your mother was Muggle-born, of course. Couldn't believe it when I found out. Thought she must have been pure-blood, she was so good."

"One of my best friends is Muggle-born," said Harriet, "and she's the best in our year." she said.

Then Dumbledore came back.

"Horace, do you mind if I take this?" He showed him a magazine of knitting. "I do love knitting patterns."

"Yes of course but you're not leaving are you?" he asked.

"Yes, indeed. I think I know a lost cause when I see one. "

"Lost. . . ?"

Slughorn seemed agitated. He twiddled his fat thumbs and fidgeted as he watched Dumbledore fasten his traveling cloak, and Harriet zip up her jacket.

"Well, I'm sorry you don't want the job, Horace," said Dumbledore, raising his uninjured hand in a farewell salute. "Hogwarts would have been glad to see you back again. Our greatly increased security notwithstanding, you will always be welcome to visit, should you wish to."

"Yes. . . well. . . very gracious. . . as I say. . ."

"Goodbye, then."

"Bye," said Harriet.

They were at the front door when there was a shout from behind them.

"All right, all right, I'll do it!"

Dumbledore turned to see Slughorn standing breathless in the doorway to the sitting room.

"You will come out of retirement?"

"Yes, yes," said Slughorn impatiently. "I must be mad, but yes. "

"Wonderful," said Dumbledore, beaming. "Then, Horace, we shall see you on the first of September."

"Yes, I daresay you will," grunted Slughorn.

Dumbledore chuckled. The garden gate swung shut behind them, and they set off back down the hill through the dark and the swirling mist.

"Well done, Harriet," said Dumbledore.

"I didn't do anything," said Harriet in surprise.

"Oh yes you did. You showed Horace exactly how much he stands to gain by returning to Hogwarts. Did you like him?"

"Er. . . "

Harriet wasn't sure whether she liked Slughorn or not. She supposed he had been pleasant in his way, but he had also seemed vain and, whatever he said to the contrary, much too surprised that a Muggle-born should make a good witch.

"Horace," said Dumbledore, relieving Harriet of the responsibility to say any of this, "likes his comfort. He also likes the company of the famous, the successful, and the powerful. He enjoys the feeling that he influences these people. He has never wanted to occupy the throne himself; he prefers the backseat-more room to spread out, you see. He used to handpick favorites at Hogwarts, sometimes for their ambition or their brains, sometimes for their charm or their talent, and he had an uncanny knack for choosing those who would go on to become outstanding in their various fields. Horace formed a kind of club of his favorites with himself at the center, making introductions, forging useful contacts between members, and always reaping some kind of benefit in return, whether a free box of his favorite crystallized pineapple or the chance to recommend the next junior member of the Goblin liaison Office."

Harriet had a sudden and vivid mental image of a great swollen spider, spinning a web around it, twitching a thread here and there to bring its large and juicy flies a little closer.

"I tell you all this," Dumbledore continued, "not to turn you against Horace-or, as we must now call him, Professor Slughorn-but to put you on your guard. He will undoubtedly try to collect you, Harriet. You would be the jewel of his collection; 'the Girl Who Lived'. . . or, as they call you these days, 'the Chosen One.'"

At these words, a chill that had nothing to do with the surrounding mist stole over Harriet. She was reminded of words she had heard a few weeks ago, words that had a horrible and particular meaning to her:

Neither can live while the other survives. . .

Dumbledore had stopped walking, level with the church they had passed earlier.

"This will do, Harriet. If you will grasp my arm."

Braced this time, Harriet was ready for the Apparition, but still found it unpleasant. When the pressure disappeared and she found herself able to breathe again, she was standing in a country lane beside Dumbledore and looking ahead to the crooked silhouette of her second favorite building in the world: the Burrow. In spite of the feeling of dread that had just swept through him, her spirits could not help but lift at the sight of it. Ron was in there. . . and so was Mrs. Weasley, who could cook better than anyone she knew...

"If you don't mind, Harriet," said Dumbledore, as they passed through the gate, "I'd like a few words with you before we part. In private. Perhaps in here?"

Dumbledore pointed toward a run-down stone outhouse where the Weasleys kept their broomsticks. A little puzzled, Harriet followed Dumbledore through the creaking door into a space a little smaller than the average cupboard. She fought the want to twitch but tightened her arms instead. Dumbledore illuminated the tip of his wand, so that it glowed like a torch, and smiled down at Harriet.

"I hope you will forgive me for mentioning it, Harriet, but I am pleased and a little proud at how well you seem to be coping after everything that happened at the Ministry. Permit me to say that I think Sirius would have been proud of you. "

Harriet swallowed; her voice seemed to have deserted her. She did not think she could stand to discuss Sirius; it had been painful enough to hear Uncle Vernon say "Her godfather's dead?" and even worse to hear Sirius's name thrown out casually by Slughorn.

"It was cruel," said Dumbledore softly, "that you and Sirius had such a short time together. A brutal ending to what should have been a long and happy relationship."

Harriet nodded, her eyes fixed resolutely on the spider now climbing Dumbledore's hat. She could tell that Dumbledore understood, that she might even suspect that until her letter arrived, Harriet had spent nearly all her time at the Dursleys' lying on her bed, refusing meals, and staring at the misted window, full of the chill emptiness that she had come to associate with dementors.

"It's just hard," Harriet said finally, in a low voice, "to realize he won't write to me again."

Her eyes burned suddenly and she blinked. She felt stupid for admitting it, but the fact that she had had someone outside Hogwarts who cared what happened to her, almost like a parent, had been one of the best things about discovering her godfather. . . and now the post owls would never bring her that comfort again. . .

"Sirius represented much to you that you had never known before," said Dumbledore gently. "Naturally, the loss is devastating. . . "

"But while I was at the Dursleys'. . . " interrupted Harriet, her voice growing stronger, "I realized I can't shut myself away or-or crack up. Sirius wouldn't have wanted that, would he? And anyway, life's too short. . . Look at Madam Bones, look at Emmeline Vance. . . It could be me next, couldn't it? But if it is," she said fiercely, now looking straight into Dumbledore's blue eyes gleaming in the wandlight, "I'll make sure I take as many Death Eaters with me as I can, and Voldemort too if I can manage it. But if not you have Neville to take him down. He's the other person that can defeat him."

"Spoken both like your mother and father's daughter and Sirius's true goddaughter!" said Dumbledore, with an approving pat on Harriet's back. "I take my hat off to you-or I would, if I were not afraid of showering you in spiders.

"And now, Harriet, on a closely related subject. . . I gather that you have been taking the Daily Prophet over the last two weeks?"

"Yes," said Harriet, and her heart beat a little faster.

"Then you will have seen that there have been not so much leaks as floods concerning your adventure in the Hall of Prophecy?"

"Yes," said Harriet again. "And now everyone knows that I'm the one-"

"No, they do not," interrupted Dumbledore. "There are only two people in the whole world who know the full contents of the prophecy made about you and Lord Voldemort, and they are both standing in this smelly, spidery broom shed. It is true, however, that many have guessed, correctly, that Voldemort sent his Death Eaters to steal a prophecy, and that the prophecy concerned you.

"Now, I think I am correct in saying that you have not told anybody that you know what the prophecy said?"

"No," said Harriet.

"A wise decision, on the whole," said Dumbledore. "Although I think you ought to relax it in favor of your friends, Mr. Neville Longbottom, Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger. Yes," he continued, when Harriet looked startled, "I think they ought to know. You do them a disservice by not confiding something this important to them."

"I didn't want -"

"- to worry or frighten them?" said Dumbledore, surveying Harriet over the top of his half-moon spectacles. "Or perhaps, to confess that you yourself are worried and frightened? You need your friends, Harriet. As you so rightly said, Sirius would not have wanted you to shut yourself away."

Harriet said nothing, but Dumbledore did not seem to require an answer. He continued, "On a different, though related, subject, it is my wish that you take private lessons with me this year."

"Private-with you?" said Harriet, surprised out of her preoccupied silence.

"Yes. I think it is time that I took a greater hand in your education."

"What will you be teaching me, sir?"

"Oh, a little of this, a little of that," said Dumbledore airily.

Harriet waited hopefully, but Dumbledore did not elaborate, so she asked something else that had been bothering her slightly.

"If I'm having lessons with you, I won't have to do Occlumency lessons with Snape, will I?"

"Professor Snape, Harriet-and no, you will not. "

"Good," said Harriet in relief, "because they were a -"

She stopped, careful not to say what she really thought.

"I think the word 'fiasco' would be a good one here," said Dumbledore, nodding.

Harriet laughed.

"Well, that means I won't see much of Professor Snape from now on," she said, "because he won't let me carry on Potions unless I get 'Outstanding' in my O. W. L. , which I know I haven't."

"Don't count your owls before they are delivered," said Dumbledore gravely. "Which, now I think of it, ought to be some time later today. Now, two more things, Harriet, before we part.

"Firstly, I wish you to keep your Invisibility Cloak with you at all times from this moment onward. Even within Hogwarts itself. Just in case, you understand me?"

Harriet nodded.

"And lastly, while you stay here, the Burrow has been given the highest security the Ministry of Magic can provide. These measures have caused a certain amount of inconvenience to Arthur and Molly-all their post, for instance, is being searched at the Ministry before being sent on. They do not mind in the slightest, for their only concern is your safety. However, it would be poor repayment if you risked your neck while staying with them. "

"I understand," said Harriet quickly.

"Very well, then," said Dumbledore, pushing open the broom shed door and stepping out into the yard. "I see a light in the kitchen. Let us not deprive Molly any longer of the chance to deplore how thin you are."

Chapter 3

Harriet and Dumbledore approached the back door of the Burrow, which was surrounded by the familiar litter of old Wellington boots and rusty cauldrons; Harriet could hear the soft clucking of sleepy chickens coming from a distant shed. Dumbledore knocked three times and Harriet saw sudden movement behind the kitchen window.

"Who's there?" said a nervous voice he recognized as Mrs. Weasley's. "Declare yourself!"

"It is I, Dumbledore, bringing Harriet."

The door opened at once. There stood Mrs. Weasley, short, plump, and wearing an old green dressing gown.

"Harriet, dear! Gracious, Albus, you gave me a fright, you said not to expect you before morning!"

"We were lucky," said Dumbledore, ushering Harriet over the threshold. "Slughorn proved much more persuadable than I had expected. Harriet's doing, of course. Ah, hello, Nymphadora!"

Harriet looked around and saw that Mrs. Weasley was not alone, despite the lateness of the hour. A young witch with a pale, heart-shaped face and mousy brown hair was sitting at the table clutching a large mug between her hands.

"Hello, Professor," she said.

"Wotcher, Who's there?" said a nervous voice he recognized as Mrs. Weasley's. "Declare yourself!"

"It is I, Dumbledore, bringing Harriet."

The door opened at once. There stood Mrs. Weasley, short, plump, and wearing an old green dressing gown.

"Harriet, dear! Gracious, Albus, you gave me a fright, you said not to expect you before morning!"

"We were lucky," said Dumbledore, ushering Harriet over the threshold. "Slughorn proved much more persuadable than I had expected. Harriet's doing, of course. Ah, hello, Nymphadora!"

Harriet looked around and saw that Mrs. Weasley was not alone, despite the lateness of the hour. A young witch with a pale, heart-shaped face and mousy brown hair was sitting at the table clutching a large mug between her hands.

"Hello, Professor," she said. "Wotcher, Harriet."

"Hi, Tonks."

Harriet thought she looked drawn, even ill, and there was something forced in her smile. Certainly her appearance was less colorful than usual without her customary shade of bubble-gum-pink hair.

"I'd better be off," she said quickly, standing up and pulling her cloak around her shoulders. "Thanks for the tea and sympathy, Molly."

"Please don't leave on my account," said Dumbledore courteously, "I cannot stay, I have urgent matters to discuss with Rufus Scrimgeour."

"No, no, I need to get going," said Tonks, not meeting Dumbledore's eyes. "Night. . . "

"Dear, why not come to dinner at the weekend, Remus and Mad-Eye are coming. . . ?"

"No, really, Molly. . . thanks anyway. . . Goodnight, every-one. "

Tonks hurried past Dumbledore and Harriet into the yard; a few paces beyond the doorstep, she turned on the spot and vanished into thin air. Harriet noticed that Mrs. Weasley looked troubled.

"Well, I shall see you at Hogwarts, Harriet," said Dumbledore. "Take care of yourself. Molly, your servant."

He made Mrs. Weasley a bow and followed Tonks, vanishing at precisely the same spot. Mrs. Weasley closed the door on the empty yard and then steered Harriet by the shoulders into the full glow of the lantern on the table to examine her appearance.

"You're like Ron," she sighed, looking her up and down. "Both of you look as though you've had Stretching jinxes put on you. I swear Ron's grown four inches since I last bought him school robes. Are you hungry, Harriet?"

"Yeah, I am," said Harriet, suddenly realizing just how hungry she was.

"Sit down, dear, I'll knock something up."

As Harriet sat down, a furry ginger cat with a squashed face lumped onto her knees and settled there, purring.

"So Neville and Hermione're here?" she asked happily as she tickled Crookshanks behind the ears.

"Oh yes, they arrived the day before yesterday," said Mrs. Weasley, rapping a large iron pot with her wand. It bounced onto the stove with a loud clang and began to bubble at once. "Everyone's in bed, of course, we didn't expect you for hours. Here you are. . . "

She tapped the pot again; it rose into the air, flew toward Harriet, and tipped over; Mrs. Weasley slid a bowl nearly beneath it just in time to catch the stream of thick, steaming onion soup.

"Bread, dear?"

"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley."

She waved her wand over her shoulder; a loaf of bread and a knife soared gracefully onto the table; as the loaf sliced itself and the soup pot dropped back onto the stove, Mrs. Weasley sat down opposite her.

"So you persuaded Horace Slughorn to take the job?"

Harriet nodded, her mouth so full of hot soup that she could not speak.

"He taught Arthur and me," said Mrs. Weasley. "He was at Hogwarts for ages, started around the same time as Dumbledore, I think. Did you like him?"

Her mouth now full of bread, Harriet shrugged and gave a non-committal jerk of the head.

"I know what you mean," said Mrs. Weasley, nodding wisely. "Of course he can be charming when he wants to be, but Arthur's never liked him much. The Ministry's littered with Slughorn's old favorites, he was always good at giving leg ups, but he never had much time for Arthur. . . didn't seem to think he was enough of a highflier. Well, that just shows you, even Slughorn makes mistakes. I don't know whether Ron's told you in any of his letters. . . it's only just happened. . . but Arthur's been promoted!"

It could not have been clearer that Mrs. Weasley had been bursting to say this.

Harriet swallowed a large amount of very hot soup and thought she could feel her throat blistering.

"That's great!" she gasped.

"You are sweet," beamed Mrs. Weasley, possibly taking her watering eyes for emotion at the news. "Yes, Rufus Scrimgeour has set up several new offices in response to the present situation, and Arthur's heading the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects. It's a big job, he's got ten people reporting to him now!"

"What exactly-?"

"Well, you see, in all the panic about You-Know-Who, odd things have been cropping up for sale everywhere, things that are supposed to guard against You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters. You can imagine the kind of thing. . . so-called protective potions that are really gravy with a bit of Bubotuber pus added, or instructions for defensive jinxes that actually make your ears fall off. . . Well, in the main the perpetrators are just people like Mundungus Hotelier, who've never done an honest day's work in their lives and are taking advantage of how frightened everybody is, but every now and then something really nasty turns up. The other day Arthur confiscated a box of cursed Sneakoscopes that were almost certainly planted by a Death Eater. So you see, it's a very important job, and I tell him it's just silly to miss dealing with spark plugs and toasters and all the rest of that Muggle rubbish." Mrs. Weasley ended her speech with a stern look, as if it had been Harriet suggesting that it was natural to miss spark-plugs.

"Is Mr. Weasley still at work?" Harriet asked.

"Yes, he is. As a matter of fact, he's a tiny bit late. . . He said he'd be back around midnight. . . "

She turned to look at a large clock that was perched awkwardly on top of a pile of sheets in the washing basket at the end of the table. Harriet recognized it at once: it had nine hands, each inscribed with the name of a family member, and usually hung on the Weasleys' sitting room wall, though its current position suggested that Mrs. Weasley had taken to carrying it around the house with her. Every single one of its nine hands was now pointing at mortal peril.

"It's been like that for a while now," said Mrs. Weasley, in an unconvincingly casual voice, "ever since You-Know-Who came back into the open. I suppose everybody's in mortal danger now. . . I don't think it can be just our family. . . but I don't know anyone else who's got a clock like this, so I can't check. Oh!"

With a sudden exclamation she pointed at the clock's face. Mr. Weasley's hand had switched to traveling.

"He's coming!"

And sure enough, a moment later there was a knock on the back door. Mrs. Weasley jumped up and hurried to it; with one hand on the doorknob and her face pressed against the wood she called softly, "Arthur, is that you?"

"Yes," came Mr. Weasley's weary voice. "But I would say that even if I were a Death Eater, dear. Ask the question!"

"Oh, honestly. . . "

"Molly!"

"All right, all right. . . What is your dearest ambition?"

"To find out how airplanes stay up."

Mrs. Weasley nodded and turned the doorknob, but apparently Mr. Weasley was holding tight to it on the other side, because the door remained firmly shut.

"Molly! I've got to ask you your question first!"

"Arthur, really, this is just silly. . ."

"What do you like me to call you when we're alone together?"

Even by the dim light of the lantern Harriet could tell that Mrs. Weasley had turned bright red; she herself felt suddenly warm around the ears and neck, and hastily gulped soup, clattering her spoon as loudly as she could against the bowl.

"Mollywobbles," whispered a mortified Mrs. Weasley into the crack at the edge of the door.

"Correct," said Mr. Weasley. "Now you can let me in."

Mrs. Weasley opened the door to reveal her husband, a thin, balding, red-haired wizard wearing horn-rimmed spectacles and a long and dusty traveling cloak.

"I still don't see why we have to go through that every time you come home," said Mrs. Weasley, still pink in the face as she helped her husband out of his cloak. "I mean, a Death Eater might have forced the answer out of you before impersonating you!"

"I know, dear, but it's Ministry procedure, and I have to set an example. Something smells good. . . onion soup?"

Mr. Weasley turned hopefully in the direction of the table.

"Harriet! We didn't expect you until morning!"

They shook hands, and Mr. Weasley dropped into the chair beside Harriet as Mrs. Weasley set a bowl of soup in front of him too.

"Thanks, Molly. It's been a tough night. Some idiot's started selling Metamorph-Medals. Just sling them around your neck and you'll be able to change your appearance at will. A hundred thousand disguises, all for ten Galleons!"

"And what really happens when you put them on?"

"Mostly you just turn a fairly unpleasant orange color, but a couple of people have also sprouted tentacle like warts all over their bodies. As if St. Mungo's didn't have enough to do already!"

"It sounds like the sort of thing Fred and George would find funny," said Mrs. Weasley hesitantly. "Are you sure. . . ?"

"Of course I am!" said Mr. Weasley. "The boys wouldn't do anything like that now, not when people are desperate for protection!"

"So is that why you're late, Metamorph-Medals?"

"No, we got wind of a nasty backfiring jinx down in Elephant and Castle, but luckily the Magical Law Enforcement Squad had sorted it out by the time we got there. . . "

Harriet stifled a yawn behind her hand.

"Bed," said an undeceived Mrs. Weasley at once. "I've got Fred and George's room all ready for you, you'll have it to yourself. "

"Why, where are they?"

"Oh, they're in Diagon Alley, sleeping in the little flat over their joke shop as they're so busy," said Mrs. Weasley. "I must say, I didn't approve at first, but they do seem to have a bit of a flair for business! Come on, dear, your trunks already up there."

"Night, Mr. Weasley," said Harriet, pushing back her chair. Crookshanks leapt lightly from her lap and slunk out of the room.

"G'night, Harriet," said Mr. Weasley.

Harriet saw Mrs. Weasley glance at the clock in the washing basket as they left the kitchen. All the hands were once again at mortal peril.

Fred and George's bedroom was on the second floor. Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at a lamp on the bedside table and it ignited at once, bathing the room in a pleasant golden glow. Though a large vase of flowers had been placed on a desk in front of the small window, their perfume could not disguise the lingering smell of what Harriet thought was gunpowder. A considerable amount of floor space was devoted to a vast number of unmarked, sealed cardboard boxes, amongst which stood Harriet's school trunk. The room looked as though it was being used as a temporary warehouse.

Hedwig hooted happily at Harriet from her perch on top of a large wardrobe, then took off through the window; Harriet knew she had been waiting to see her before going hunting. Harriet bade Mrs. Weasley good night, put on pajamas, and got into one of the beds. There was something hard inside the pillowcase. She groped inside it and pulled out a sticky purple-and-orange sweet, which he recognized as a Puking Pastille. Smiling to himself, she rolled over and was instantly asleep.

Seconds later, or so it seemed to Harriet, she was awakened by what sounded like cannon fire as the door burst open. Sitting bolt upright, she heard the rasp of the curtains being pulled back: The dazzling sunlight seemed to poke her hard in both eyes. Shielding them with one hand, she groped hopelessly for her glasses with the other.

"Wuzzgoinon?"

"We didn't know you were here already!" said a loud and excited voice, and he received a sharp blow to the top of the head.

"Ron, don't hit her!" said a girl's voice reproachfully.

"Yeah, don't hurt my girlfriend!" another boy said.

Harriet's hand found her glasses and she shoved them on, though the light was so bright she could hardly see anyway. A long, looming shadow quivered in front of him for a moment; she blinked and Ron Weasley came into focus, grinning down at her.

"All right?"

"Never been better," said Harriet, rubbing the top of her head and slumping back onto her pillows. "You?"

"Not bad," said Ron, pulling over a cardboard box and sitting on it. "When did you get here? Mum's only just told us!"

"About one o'clock this morning."

"Were the Muggles alright? Did they treat you okay?" Neville asked sitting next to her.

"Same as usual," said Harriet, as Hermione perched herself on the edge of her bed, "they didn't talk to me much, but I like it better that way. How're you, Neville, Hermione?"

"Good and happy to see you." Neville said then gave her a kiss.

"Oh, I'm fine," said Hermione, who was scrutinizing Harriet as though she was sickening for something. She thought she knew what was behind this, and as she had no wish to discuss Sirius's death or any other miserable subject at the moment, she said, "What's the time? Have I missed breakfast?"

"Don't worry about that, Mum's bringing you up a tray; she reckons you look underfed," said Ron, rolling his eyes. "So, what's been going on?"

"Nothing much, I've just been stuck at my aunt and uncle's, haven't I?"

"Come off it!" said Neville. "You've been off with Dumbledore!"

"It wasn't that exciting. He just wanted me to help him persuade this old teacher to come out of retirement. His name's Horace Slughorn."

"Oh," said Ron, looking disappointed. "We thought-"

Hermione flashed a warning look at Ron so did Neville, and Ron changed tack at top speed.

"- we thought it'd be something like that."

"You did?" said Harriet, amused.

"Yeah. . . yeah, now Umbridge has left, obviously we need a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, don't we? So, er, what's he like?"

"He looks a bit like a walrus, and he used to be Head of Slytherin," said Harriet. "Something wrong, Hermione?"

She was watching her as though expecting strange symptoms to manifest themselves at any moment. She rearranged her features hastily in an unconvincing smile.

"No, of course not! So, um, did Slughorn seem like he'll be a good teacher?"

"Dunno," said Harriet. "He can't be worse than Umbridge, can he?"

"I know someone who's worse than Umbridge," said a voice from the doorway. Ron's younger sister slouched into the room, looking irritable. "Hi, Harriet."

"What's up with you?" Ron asked.

"It's her," said Ginny, plonking herself down on Harriet's bed. "She's driving me mad."

"What's she done now?" asked Neville sympathetically.

"It's the way she talks to me. . . you'd think I was about three!"

"I know," said Hermione, dropping her voice. "She's so full of herself."

Harriet was astonished to hear Hermione talking about Mrs. Weasley like this and could not blame Ron for saying angrily, "Can't you two lay off her for five seconds?"

"Oh, that's right, defend her," snapped Ginny. "We all know you can't get enough of her."

This seemed an odd comment to make about Ron's mother. Starting to feel that she was missing something, Harriet said, "Who are you. . . ?"

But her question was answered before she could finish it. The bedroom door flew open again, and Harriet instinctively yanked the bed covers up to her chin so hard that Neville, Hermione and Ginny slid off the bed onto the floor.

A young woman was standing in the doorway, a woman of such breathtaking beauty that the room seemed to have become strangely airless. She was tall and willowy with long blonde hair and appeared to emanate a faint, silvery glow. To complete this vision of perfection, she was carrying a heavily laden breakfast tray.

"'Arriet," she said in a throaty voice. "Eet 'as been too long!"

As she swept over the threshold toward her, Mrs. Weasley was revealed, bobbing along in her wake, looking rather cross.

"There was no need to bring up the tray, I was just about to do it myself!"

"Eet was no trouble," said Fleur Delacour, setting the tray across Harriet's knees and then swooping to kiss her on each cheek: she felt the places where her mouth had touched her burn. "I 'ave been longing to see 'er. You remember my seester, Gabrielle? She never stops talking about 'Arriet Potter. She will be delighted to see you again."

"Oh. . . is she here too?" Harriet croaked getting closer to Neville.

"No, no, silly girl," said Fleur with a tinkling laugh, "I mean next summer, when we. . . but do you not know?"

Her great blue eyes widened and she looked reproachfully at Mrs. Weasley, who said, "We hadn't got around to telling her yet."

Fleur turned back to Harriet, swinging her silvery sheet of hair so that it whipped Mrs. Weasley across the face.

"Bill and I are going to be married!"

"Oh," said Harriet blankly. She could not help noticing how Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, and Ginny were all determinedly avoiding one another's gaze. "Wow. Er. . . congratulations!"

She swooped down upon her and kissed her again.

"Bill is very busy at ze moment, working very 'ard, and I only work part-time at Gringotts for my Eenglish, so he brought me 'ere for a few days to get to know 'is family properly. I was so pleased to 'ear you would be coming. . . zere isn't much to do 'ere, unless you like cooking and chickens! Well. . . enjoy your breakfast, 'Arriet!"

With these words she turned gracefully and seemed to float out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Mrs. Weasley made a noise that sounded like, "tchah!"

"Mum hates her," said Ginny quietly.

"I do not hate her!" said Mrs. Weasley in a cross whisper. "I just think they've hurried into this engagement, that's all!"

"They've known each other a year," said Ron, who looked oddly groggy and was staring at the closed door.

"Well, that's not very long! I know why it's happened, of course. It's all this uncertainty with You-Know-Who coming back, people think they might be dead tomorrow, so they're rushing all sorts of decisions they'd normally take time over. It was the same last time he was powerful, people eloping left, right, and center. . ."

"Including you and Dad," said Ginny slyly.

"Yes, well, your father and I were made for each other, what was the point in waiting?" said Mrs. Weasley. "Whereas Bill and Fleur. . . well. . . what have they really got in common? He's a hardworking, down-to-earth sort of person, whereas she's. . ."

"A cow," said Ginny, nodding. "But Bill's not that down-to-earth. He's a Curse-Breaker, isn't he, he likes a bit of adventure, a bit of glamour. . . I expect that's why he's gone for Phlegm."

"Stop calling her that, Ginny," said Mrs. Weasley sharply, as Harriet and Hermione laughed. "Well, I'd better get on. . . Eat your eggs while they're warm, Harriet."

Looking careworn, she left the room. Ron still seemed slightly punch-drunk; he was shaking his head experimentally like a dog trying to rid its ears of water.

"Don't you get used to her if she's staying in the same house?" Harriet asked.

"Well, you do," said Ron, "but if she jumps out at you unexpectedly, like then. . . "

"It's pathetic," said Hermione furiously, striding away from Ron as far as she could go and turning to face him with her arms folded once she had reached the wall.

"You don't really want her around forever?" Ginny asked Ron incredulously. When he merely shrugged, she said, "Well, Mum's going to put a stop to it if she can, I bet you anything."

"How's she going to manage that?" asked Harriet.

"She keeps trying to get Tonks round for dinner. I think she's hoping Bill will fall for Tonks instead. I hope he does, I'd much rather have her in the family."

"Yeah, that'll work," said Ron sarcastically. "Listen, no bloke in his right mind's going to fancy Tonks when Fleur's around. I mean, Tonks is okay-looking when she isn't doing stupid things to her hair and her nose, but. . . "

"She's a damn sight nicer than Phlegm," said Ginny.

"And she's more intelligent, she's an Auror!" said Hermione from the corner.

"Fleur's not stupid, she was good enough to enter the Triwizard Tournament," said Harriet.

"Not you as well!" said Hermione bitterly.

"I suppose you like the way Phlegm says ''Arriet,' do you?" asked Ginny scornfully.

"No," said Harriet, wishing she hadn't spoken, "I was just saying, Phlegm. . . I mean, Fleur. . . "

"I'd much rather have Tonks in the family," said Ginny. "At least she's a laugh."

"She hasn't been much of a laugh lately," said Ron. "Every time I've seen her she's looked more like Moaning Myrtle. "

"That's not fair," snapped Hermione. "She still hasn't got over what happened. . . you know. . . I mean, he was her cousin!"

Harriet's heart sank. They had arrived at Sirius. She picked up a fork and began shoveling scrambled eggs into her mouth, hoping to deflect any invitation to join in this part of the conversation.

"Tonks and Sirius barely knew each other!" said Ron. "Sirius was in Azkaban half her life and before that their families never met-"

"That's not the point," said Hermione. "She thinks it was her limit he died!"

"How does she work that one out?" asked Harriet, in spite of herself.

"Well, she was fighting Bellatrix Lestrange, wasn't she? I think she feels that if only she had finished her off, Bellatrix couldn't have killed Sirius."

"That's stupid," said Ron.

"It's survivor's guilt," said Neville. "I know Lupin's tried to talk her round, but she's still really down. She's actually having trouble with her Metamorphosing!"

"With her. . . ?"

"She can't change her appearance like she used to," explained Hermione. "I think her powers must have been affected by shock, or something."

"I didn't know that could happen," said Harriet.

"Nor did I," said Hermione, "but I suppose if you're really depressed. . . "

The door opened again and Mrs. Weasley popped her head in. "Ginny," she whispered, "come downstairs and help me with the lunch."

"I'm talking to this lot!" said Ginny, outraged.

"Now!" said Mrs. Weasley, and withdrew.

"She only wants me there so she doesn't have to be alone with Phlegm!" said Ginny crossly.

She swung her long red hair around in a very good imitation of Fleur and pranced across the room with her arms held aloft like a ballerina.

"You lot had better come down quickly too," she said as she left.

Harriet took advantage of the temporary silence to eat more breakfast. Hermione was peering into Fred and George's boxes, though every now and then she cast sideways looks at Harriet. Ron, who was now helping himself to Harriet's toast, was still gazing dreamily at the door.

"What's this?" Hermione asked eventually, holding up what looked like a small telescope.

"Dunno," said Ron, "but if Fred and George left it here, it's probably not ready for the joke shop yet, so be careful."

"Your mum said the shop's going well," said Harriet. "Said Fred and George have got a real flair for business."

"That's an understatement," said Ron. "They're raking in the Galleons! I can't wait to see the place, we haven't been to Diagon Alley yet, because Mum says Dad's got to be there for extra security and he's been really busy at work, but it sounds excellent."

"And what about Percy?" asked Harriet; the third-eldest Weasley brother had fallen out with the rest of the family. "Is he talking to your mum and dad again?"

"Nope," said Ron.

"But he knows your dad was right all along now about Voldemort being back. . ."

"Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right," said Neville. "I heard him telling your mum, Ron."

"Sounds like the sort of mental thing Dumbledore would say," said Ron.

"He's going to be giving me private lessons this year," said Harriet conversationally.

Ron choked on his bit of toast, and Hermione gasped while Neville sat there in shock.

"You kept that quiet!" said Ron.

"I only just remembered," said Harriet honestly. "He told me last night in your broom shed."

"Blimey. . . private lessons with Dumbledore!" said Ron, looking impressed. "I wonder why he's. . . ?"

His voice tailed away. Harriet saw him, Neville and Hermione exchange looks. Harriet laid down her knife and fork, her heart beating rather fast considering that all she was doing was sitting in bed. Dumbledore had said to do it. . . Why not now? She fixed her eyes on her fork, which was gleaming in the sunlight streaming into her lap, and said, "I don't know exactly why he's going to be giving me lessons, but I think it must be because of the prophecy. "

Neither Neville, Ron nor Hermione spoke. Harriet had the impression that they all had frozen. She continued, still speaking to her fork, "You know, the one they were trying to steal at the Ministry."

"Nobody knows what it said, though," said Hermione quickly. "It got smashed."

"Although the Prophet says. . . " began Ron, but Hermione said, "Shh!"

While Neville glared at him.

"The Prophet's got it right," said Harriet, looking up at them all with a great effort: Hermione seemed frightened, Neville worried and Ron amazed. "That glass ball that smashed wasn't the only record of the prophecy. I heard the whole thing in Dumbledore's office, he was the one the prophecy was made to, so he could tell me. From what it said," Harriet took a deep breath, "it looks like I'm the one who's got to finish off Voldemort. . . At least, it said neither of us could live while the other survives. But if I can't do it there's one other person that can."

"Who?" Neville asked.

She looked at him and sighed.

"You."

The four of them gazed at one another in silence for a moment. Then there was a loud bang and Hermione vanished behind a puff of black smoke.

"Hermione!" shouted Harriet, Neville and Ron; the breakfast tray slid to the floor with a crash.

Hermione emerged, coughing, out of the smoke, clutching the telescope and sporting a brilliantly purple black eye.

"I squeezed it and it. . . it punched me!" she gasped.

And sure enough, they now saw a tiny fist on a long spring protruding from the end of the telescope.

"Don't worry," said Ron, who was plainly trying not to laugh, "Mum'll fix that, she's good at healing minor injuries. . . "

"Oh well, never mind that now!" said Hermione hastily. "Harriet, oh, Harriet. . . "

She sat down on the edge of her bed again.

"We wondered, after we got back from the Ministry. . . Obviously, we didn't want to say anything to you, but from what Lucius Malfoy said about the prophecy, how it was about you and Voldemort, well, we thought it might be something like this. . . Oh, Harriet. . . " She stared at him, then whispered, "Are you scared?"

"Not as much as I was," said Harriet. "When I first heard it, I was. . . but now, it seems as though I always knew I'd have to face him in the end. . . "

"When we heard Dumbledore was collecting you in person, we thought he might be telling you something or showing you something to do with the prophecy," said Ron eagerly. "And we were kind of right, weren't we? He wouldn't be giving you lessons if he thought you were a goner, wouldn't waste his time. . . he must think you've got a chance!"

"That's true," said Hermione. "I wonder what he'll teach you, Harriet? Really advanced defensive magic, probably. . . powerful counter-curses. . . anti-jinxes. . . "

Harriet did not really listen. A warmth was spreading through her that had nothing to do with the sunlight; a tight obstruction in her chest seemed to be dissolving. She knew that Neville, Ron and Hermione were more shocked than they were letting on, but the mere fact that they were still there on either side of her, speaking bracing words of comfort, not shrinking from her as though she were contaminated or dangerous, was worth more than she could ever tell them.

". . . and evasive enchantments generally," concluded Hermione. "Well, at least you know one lesson you'll be having this year, that's one more than Ron, Neville and me. I wonder when our O. W. L. results will come?"

"Can't be long now, it's been a month," said Neville.

"Hang on," said Harriet, as another part of last night's conversation came back to him. "I think Dumbledore said our O.W.L. results would be arriving today!"

"Today?" shrieked Hermione. "Today? But why didn't you. . . oh my God. . . you should have said. . . "

She leap to her feet.

"I'm going to see whether any owls have come. . ."

But when Harriet arrived downstairs ten minutes later, fully dressed and carrying her empty breakfast tray, it was to find Hermione sitting at the kitchen table in great agitation, while Mrs. Weasley tried to lessen her resemblance to half a panda.

"It just won't budge," Mrs. Weasley was saying anxiously, standing over Hermione with her wand in her hand and a copy of The Healer's Helpmate open at 'Bruises, Cuts, and Abrasions'. "This has always worked before, I just can't understand it."

"It'll be Fred and George's idea of a funny joke, making sure it can't come off," said Ginny.

"But it's got to come off!" squeaked Hermione. "I can't go around looking like this forever!"

"You won't, dear, we'll find an antidote, don't worry," said Mrs. Weasley soothingly.

"Bill told me 'ow Fred and George are very amusing!" said Fleur, smiling serenely.

"Yes, I can hardly breathe for laughing," snapped Hermione.

She jumped up and started walking round and round the kitchen, twisting her fingers together.

"Mrs. Weasley, you're quite, quite sure no owls have arrived this morning?"

"Yes, dear, I'd have noticed," said Mrs. Weasley patiently. "But it's barely nine, there's still plenty of time. . . "

"I know I messed up Ancient Runes," muttered Hermione feverishly, "I definitely made at least one serious mistranslation. And the Defense Against the Dark Arts practical was no good at all. I thought Transfiguration went all right at the time, but looking back-"

"Hermione, will you shut up, you're not the only one who's nervous!" barked Ron. "And when you've got your eleven 'Outstanding O. W. L. s. . . '"

"Don't, don't, don't!" said Hermione, flapping her hands hysterically. "I know I've failed everything!"

"What happens if we fail?" Neville asked the room at large, but it was again Hermione who answered.

"We discuss our options with our Head of House, I asked Professor McGonagall at the end of last term."

Harriet's stomach squirmed. She wished she had eaten less breakfast.

"At Beauxbatons," said Fleur complacently, "we 'ad a different way of doing things. I think eet was better. We sat our examinations after six years of study, not five, and then. . . "

Fleur's words were drowned in a scream. Hermione was pointing through the kitchen window. Three black specks were clearly visible in the sky, growing larger all the time.

"They're definitely owls," said Ron hoarsely, jumping up to join Hermione at the window.

"And there are four of them," said Neville, hastening to his other side.

"One for each of us," said Hermione in a terrified whisper. "Oh no. . . oh no. . . oh no. . . "

She gripped both Harriet, and Ron tightly around the elbows.

The owls were flying directly at the Burrow, four handsome tawnies, each of which, it became clear as they flew lower over the path leading up to the house, was carrying a large square envelope.

"Oh no!" squealed Hermione.

Mrs. Weasley squeezed past them and opened the kitchen window. One, two, three, four the owls soared through it and landed on the table in a neat line. All four of them lifted their right legs.

Harriet moved forward. The letter addressed to her was tied to the leg of the owl in the middle. She untied it with fumbling fingers. To her left, Ron was trying to detach his own results; to her right, Hermione's hands were shaking so much she was making her whole owl tremble. And next to her Neville was having trouble grabbing it.

Nobody in the kitchen spoke. At last, Harriet managed to detach the envelope. She slit it open quickly and unfolded the parchment inside.

Ordinary Wizarding Level Results

Pass Grades:

Outstanding (O)

Exceeds Expectations (E)

Acceptable (A)

Fail Grades:

Poor (P)

Dreadful (D)

Troll (T)

Harriet Lilly Potter has achieved:

Astronomy A

Care of Magical Creatures E

Charms E

Defense Against the Dark Arts O

Divination P

Herbology O

History of Magic D

Potions E

Transfiguration E

Harriet read the parchment through several times, her breathing becoming easier with each reading. It was all right: she had always known that she would fail Divination, and she had had no chance of passing History of Magic, given that she had collapsed halfway through the examination, but she had passed everything else! She ran her finger down the grades. . . she had passed well in Transfiguration and Herbology, (thanks to Neville with herbology) she had even exceeded expectations at Potions! And best of all, she had achieved "Outstanding" at Defense Against the Dark Arts!

She looked around. Hermione had her back to her and her head bent, but Ron was looking delighted. Same with Neville.

"Only failed Divination and History of Magic, and who cares about them?" Ron said happily to Harriet. "Here. . . swap. . . "

Harriet glanced down Ron's grades: There were no "Outstandings" there. . .

"Knew you'd be top at Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Ron, punching Harriet on the shoulder. "We've done all right, haven't we?"

"Well done!" said Mrs. Weasley proudly, ruffling Ron's hair. "Seven O. W. L. s, that's more than Fred and George got together!"

"Hermione?" said Ginny tentatively, for Hermione still hadn't turned around. "How did you do?"

"I-not bad," said Hermione in a small voice.

"Oh, come off it," said Ron, striding over to her and whipping her results out of her hand. "Yep. . . ten 'Outstandings' and one 'Exceeds Expectations' at Defense Against the Dark Arts. " He looked down at her, half-amused, half-exasperated. "You're actually disappointed, aren't you?"

Hermione shook her head, but Harriet laughed.

"I got the same thing as Harriet except Defense Against the Dark Arts. I got an Exceedingly Exceptional." Neville said.

"Well, we're N. E. W. T. students now!" grinned Ron. "Mum, are there any more sausages?"

Harriet looked back down at her results. They were as good as she could have hoped for. She felt just one tiny twinge of regret. . . This was the end of her ambition to become an Auror. She had not secured the required Potions grade. She had known all along that she wouldn't, but she still felt a sinking in her stomach as she looked again at that small black E.

It was odd, really, seeing that it had been a Death Eater in disguise who had first told Harriet she would make a good Auror, but somehow the idea had taken hold of her, and she couldn't really think of anything else she would like to be. Moreover, it had seemed the right destiny for her since she had heard the prophecy a few weeks ago. . . Neither can live while the other survives. . . Wouldn't she be living up to the prophecy, and giving herself the best chance of survival, if she joined those highly trained wizards whose job it was to find and kill Voldemort?

Chapter 4

Before they knew it they were getting everything they needed for school. Right now they were at Fred and George's new store.

WEASLEY'S WIZARD WHEEZES

There was something in the hand of a boy being pulled by his mother through the throng packed sardine-tight in the store.

It's utter madness: Ever-Bashing Boomerangs whip through the air, Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start No-Heat fireworks spit sparks, and Nose-Biting Teacups bare tiny porcelain teeth.

"Step up! Step up!" Fred and George said together.

"We've got Fainting Fancy..." George said.

"Nosebleed Nougats..." Fred said.

"And just in time for school..." George said.

"Puking Pastilles!" Fred said.

A boy stoped chewing, turns pale green - literally.

"Into the cauldron, handsome." Fred and George said together.

Together, with the tips of their toes, Fred and George launch a sloshing cauldron down the counter, drop down on either side of Harriet and Neville, begin to steer them through the store.

"What'd you think, Neville, Harriet?" Fred said.

"Amazing." Harriet said.

"Yeah, it's awesome!" Neville said.

"Pocket that and you'll pay in more than Galleons, my friend." George said to a browsing boy.

"We've got eyes in the back of our heads." they said together.

The boy, working a screaming yo-yo, blanches as Fred and George turn, reveal they do in fact have eyes in the back of their heads - phony, but unnerving. As the eyes wink, the tiny boy bolts.

"Bloody urchins." George said.

Neville's s eyes a display of orange and black lumps.

"Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder?" he said.

"A real money spinner that." George said.

"Handy if you need to make a quick escape." Fred said.

"Hello, ladies!" they said together.

George dropped one of the lumps in Neville's hand, turned to Ginny and Hermione, who peruse a display of "Wonder Witch Love Potions."

"Yes, they do really work." George said.

"Then again, the way we hear it,

sis, you're doing just fine on your own." Fred said.

"Meaning?" Ginny said.

"Are you not currently dating Dean Thomas?" Fred said.

"None of your business." she said smiling.

"These are adorable.

Inside a cage, small round balls of fluff roll about, squeak." Hermione said.

"Aren't they now. Pygmy Puffs.

Can't breed them fast enough." George said.

Just then a huge boy passes behind Hermione and, with his eyes, takes the full measure of her. Noticing, she turns, receives a faint smile as he moves on.

"How much for this?" Ron asked.

A tiny wooden man ascends a tiny gallows and... drops.

George rides a rolling ladder into frame, drops next to Fred.

"Five Galleons." they said together.

"How much for me?" he asked.

"Five Galleons." they said again.

"But I'm your brother!"

"Ten Galleons."

"C'mon. Let's go." Ron said while he looked at Harriet, Neville and Hermione.

The quartet head for the door, passing Lavender Brown, who smiles flirtatiously at an oblivious Ron.

"Hi, Ron. Hi." she said waving.

"Hi." he said.

The sun fades over an Iron Archway- Welcome to Diagon Alley! - as Harriet, Neville, Ron and Hermione pass beneath. All around them, shops sit silent, windows boarded-up or shattered. People scurry by, avoiding the scary faces of the witches and wizards who peer out from the security posters plastered to every lamp post.

Bellatrix is there, and Greyback, and Lucius Malfoy.

"How is it Fred and George are

doing it? Half the alley's closed down." Hermione asked.

"Fred reckons people need a laugh these days." Ron said.

"Reckon he's right..."

Harriet eyes the poster of Bellatrix, her mocking half- smile.

While she did that she saw Neville looking angry. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it getting him to calm down.

"Oh no. Look." Hermione said.

Harriet, Neville and Ron follow her gaze to the wreck that is Ollivander's Wand Shop.

"But everyone got their wands from Ollivander. Young. Old..." Neville started.

"Good. Bad. Speaking of which..." Harriet continued.

Across the avenue, Draco Malfoy and Narcissa pause, glance around, then slip quickly down an alley.

"Is it just me? Or do Malfoy and

mummy look like two people who don't want to be followed?" Ron said.

The quartet trail Malfoy and Narcissa, who navigate these dark streets with ease.

Hermione, lagging a bit, glances up at the darkening sky. When she looks back, she sees Ron, Neville and Harriet far ahead. They turn a shadowy corner, vanish.

Harriet, Neville and Ron duck inside a shop front. At the end of the alley, a single shop glimmers dully: Borgin & Burkes. Narcissa and Malfoy enter, greet a stooped man. He pointed and Malfoy walked to a lacquered cabinet, played his fingers over its glassy surface.

Narcissa speaks and Malfoy turned and found Borgin holding the curtain to the back room aside. Malfoy hesitated, then followed his mother through.

"What're they playing at?" Ron said.

"Dunno. Let's get closer." Harriet said.

"Hey. Where's Hermione?" Ron asked.

They couldn't find her so

Harriet, Neville and Ron ran down one passage then another then stopped.

"Harriet, where is she?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. I'm turning around." she said.

Then they bumped into Hermione and she was in Ron's arms before she could say anything.

"Ron. Bloody hell." Hermione said.

"Sorry." he said.

Just then, a cauldron exploded with light. Instantly, the group, including Malfoy, disperses.

"What just happened?" Neville asked.

"I don't know." Hermione said.

Chapter 5

A few days later they were on the train and talking.

"He has to be one of them." Harriet said.

"Stop it Harriet, I know where you're going with this." Hermione said.

"Hermione, his father is a Death Eater it only makes sense. Besides we saw him getting something done." she said.

"I know his dad is a Death Eater but that doesn't mean he is." Hermione said.

"I need some air." Harriet said.

Then she grabbed the invisibility cloak and left. Neville looked at her wondering what she was doing while she left.

When Harriet got to the room Malfoy's in she went up and laid down.

"What was that?" Malfoy asked while the lights started to go off.

"It's just the light. Sit down Draco, we'll be at Hogwarts soon." someone said.

"Hogwarts. What a pathetic excuse for a school. I think I pitched myself off the astronomy tab I thought I had to continue for another 2 years." Malfoy said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"Let's just say I don't think I see me wasting my time in Charms class next year."

Then Blaise snickered a little.

"Amused, Blaise? Let's see just who's laughing in the end." he said.

When they got to Hogwarts he staying on the table and looked at the other three people he was with.

"You two go on. Wanna check something." he said.

When they all left he shut the window and made it so no one could see.

"Didn't your mummy ever tell you it's rude to ease drop Potter?"

Then he turned around.

_"Petrificus Totalus!"_

He took off the cloak.

"Oh yeah, she was dead before you could wipe the drool off your chin."

Then he kicked her.

"That's for my father." he said.

"Enjoy your ride back to London!"

Then he put the cloak back on her and left.

While Harriet laid there Luna came and found her.

_"Aneta!"_ she said.

Then the cloak was off and she was able to move again.

"Hello Harriet." she said.

"Luna." she said and stood up. "How'd you know I was here?"

"Wrapspurts, your head's full of them." she said.

When they got outside they started to head to school.

"Sorry you had to miss the carriages." Harriet said.

"That's alright. It's like being with a friend." she said.

"Oh I am your friend Luna."

"That's Nice."

"Oh about time! Names?" Flitwick asked.

"Professor you've known me for five years!" Harriet said

"No excuses Potter." he said.

"Luna Lovegood." Luna said.

Meanwhile in the great hall,

"Don't worry, she'll be here in a minute." Ron said while he ate.

"Will you stop eating! Your best friend is missing!" Hermione said while she hit him with her book.

"And my girlfriend!" Neville said.

"Oi! Turn around ya lunatics!" he said.

They saw Harriet with a tissue on her nose bleeding.

"She's covered in blood again. Why is it she's always covered in blood?" Ginny asked.

"Where have you been?" Hermione asked.

"Look at your face!" Neville said.

"Later, what have I missed?" Harriet asked when she sat next to Neville.

"Just then sorting and that's it." Ron said

"Good evening children! Dumbledore said. "Very best of evenings to you all."

"Thanks."

"First off, let me introduce the newest member of our staff. Horace Slughorn. Professor Slughorn, I'm happy to say, has agreed to resume his old post... as Potions Master. Meanwhile, the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts... will be taken by Professor Snape."

Then they looked at Dumbledore and continued to listen.

"As you know, each and every one of you were searched upon your arrival here tonight. And you have the right to know why. Once, there was a young man. Like you, sat in this very hall. Walked this castle's corridors. Slept under it's roof. You see, to all the world, a student like any other. His name: Tom Riddle. Today of course, is known all over the world by another name. Which is why as I stand, looking out upon you all tonight, I'm reminded of a sobering fact. Every day, every hour, this very minute, perhaps... dark forces attempt to penetrate this castle's walls. But in the end, that greatest weapon... is you. Just something to think about."

He looked at everyone and then smiled.

"Now off to bed, pip pip."

"That was cheerful." Ron said.

Then they all headed to bed.

Chapter 6

The next day Harriet, Neville and Ron were standing there laughing at first years a little thinking about their trouble looking for everything.

"History of Magic is upstairs, ladies, not down. Mr. Davis, Mr. Davis, that is the girls' lavatory." McGonagall said.

Then looked and saw Harriet, Neville and Ron

"Potter."

"Oh this can't be good." Harriet said.

"Enjoying ourselves are we?" she asked

"Oh I had a free period Professor." she said

"So I noticed. I would think that you would want to use it with potions. Or do you no longer wish to be an aurar?"

"Well Professor Snape wanted an outstanding." she said.

"So you did Ms. Potter. When Professor Snape was the teacher. As for Professor Slughorn he accepts students with just an Exhceeds Expectations."

"Alright, good. Well I'll go there straight away." Harriet said.

"Good, and Potter, take Mr. Weasley and Mr. Longbottom with you. They look far too entertained."

So they headed to class.

"I don't wanna take potions. There's quidditch trials and I need to practice." Ron said.

When they got there they heard Slughorn talking about a potion.

"Attention to detail in the preparation is the prerequisite of all plan. Harriet my girl. I've been beginning to worry. You brought two others with you, I see." he said.

"Ron Weasley, sir." Ron said. "But I'm dead awful at Potions. A menace, actually so. I'm probably just gonna-."

"Neville Longbottom sir. I'm not that good either." Neville said.

"Nonsense, we'll sort you out. Any friend of Harriet's is a friend of mine. Get your books out." Slughorn said.

"I didn't get the chance to get all my school books and neither has Ron or Neville." Harriet said.

"Not to worry, get what you want from the cupboard. Now as I was saying, I prepared some concoctions this morning. Any ideas what these might be?"

So they headed to grab a book. There were three books. Ron grabbed one first, then Neville and then Harriet. Her book had rips in it.

While they did that Slughorn asked a question.

Then Hermione raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss...?"

"Granger, sir. That one there is veritaserum. It's a truth-telling serum. And that one- It's terribly tricky to make. This is Amortentia. The most powerful love potion in the world. It's rumored to smell differently to each person according to what attracts them."

Then she walked over to it and sniffed it.

"For example, I smell... Freshly mown grass and new parchment and... Spearmint toothpaste."

"Now Amortentia doesn't create actual love. That would be impossible, but it does cause powerful infatuation or obsession. And for that reason, it is probably the most dangerous potion in this room." Slughorn said.

"Sir, you haven't told us what's in that one." someone said.

"Liquid luck." Hermione finished.

"Yes, Miss Granger. Liquid luck. Desperately tricky to make, disastrous should you get it wrong. One sip and you'll find that all of your endeavours succeed. At least until the effects wear off. So this is what I offer each of you today. One tiny vial of liquid luck to the student who in the hour that remains, manages to brew an acceptable Draught of Living Dead. Recipes for which can be found on page 10 of your books. Issue one doubt, however. Only one set of student manage to brew a potion of sufficient quality to claim this prize. Nevertheless, good luck to you all. Let the brewing commence!" he said.

When they got the ingredients they opened their book and started.

Harriet saw on the side saying, 'This Book is belongs to the half blood prince.'

So she opened it and saw different ways to make it.

When she got to the cutting part she saw it say crush it. So she did that and Hermione was shocked.

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked.

"Crush it don't cut it." she said.

"No, the instructions specifically say to cut." she said.

"No really." Harriet said.

While they tried to make it Harriet did as the book said.

When it was Harriet's turn for Slughorn to check it she was shocked.

"Merlin's beard! It's perfect! In fact if we even touched it it would kill us all!" he said.

"Like I promised, one tiny vial of liquid luck. Use it well." he said.

Then everyone started clapping. While they did that Neville smiled.

Chapter 7

A few days later Harriet was on her way to Dumbledore's office.

When she got there she knocked on the door.

"Come in." Dumbledore said.

"Ah Harriet you got my message." he said when she came in.

"Enjoying your new classes?"

"Yes." she said.

"Professor Slughorn is most impressive." he said.

"I think he overestimates my abilities sir." Harriet said.

Then he stood up and headed to the memories.

"You must be wonderful why I summoned you here. The answer is this. These are memories of one person: Voldemort."

She stood there in shock.

"Or as he once was called, Tom Riddle."

Then he picked up a memory and looked at her.

"This vial has most sufficient memory." he started

Harriet waited for him to finish.

"The day I first met him. I'd like you two to see it."

So he poured the pensive into his memory holder and then they went inside.

_He mounted the few steps leading to the front door and knocked once. After a moment or two, the door was opened by a girl wearing an apron._

_"Good afternoon. I have an appointment with a Mrs. Cole."_

_"Oh, alright. Just a moment, MRS. COLE!" she bellowed over her shoulder._

_She turned back to Dumbledore._

_"Dumbledore stepped into a hallway tiled in black and white. The whole place was shabby but very clean. When the front door had closed behind them, a skinny, harassed-looking woman came toward them. She had a sharp-featured face that appeared and was talking over her shoulder to another aproned helper as she walked toward Dumbledore._

_"Good afternoon," said Dumbledore, holding out his hand. "My name is Albus Dumbledore. I sent you a letter requesting an appointment and you very kindly invited me here today."_

_"Oh yes. Well then- you'd better come into my room." she said._

_She led Dumbledore into a small room that seemed part sitting room, part office. It was as shabby as the hallway and the furniture was old and mismatched. She invited him to sit on a rickety chair while she sat behind a cluttered desk._

_"I'm here, as I told you in my letter, to discuss Tom Riddle and arrangements for his future." said Dumbledore._

_"Are you family?" asked Mrs. Cole._

_"No, I am a teacher," he said. "I've come to offer Tom a place at my school."_

_"What school then?"_

_"It's called Hogwarts." said Dumbledore._

_"And why are you interested in Tom?"_

_"We believe he has qualities we're looking for."_

_"You mean he's won a scholarship? How can he have done? He's never been entered for one."_

_"Well, his name has been down for our school since birth-"_

_"Who registered him? His parents?"_

_There was no doubt that Mrs. Cole was an inconveniently sharp woman. Apparently Dumbledore thought so too, he slip his wand out of his pocket, at the same time picking up a piece of perfectly blank paper from Mrs. Cole's desktop._

_"Here," he said waving his wand once as he passed her the piece of paper. "I think this will make everything clear."_

_Mrs. Cole's eyes slid out of focus and back again as she gazed intently at the blank paper for a moment._

_That seems perfectly in order," she said placidly, handing it back._

_Then her eyes fell upon a bottle of gin and two glasses that had certainly not been present a few seconds before._

_"May I offer you a glass of gin?" she said._

_"Thank you very much," said Dumbledore, beaming._

_It soon became clear that Mrs. Cole was no novice when it came to gin drinking. Pouring both of them a generous measure, she drained her own glass in one gulp._

_She smiled at Dumbledore for the first time, and he didn't hesitate to press his advantage._

_"I was wondering whether you could tell me anything of Tom Riddle's history? I think he was born here in the orphanage?"_

_"That's right," said Mrs. Cole, helping herself to more gin._

_"I remember it clear as anything, because I'd just started here myself. New Year's Eve and bitter cold, snowing, nasty night. And this girl, not much older than I was myself at the time, came staggering up the front steps. Well, she wasn't the first. We took her in, and she had the baby within the hour. She was dead in another hour."_

_Mrs. Cole nodded impressively and took another generous gulp of gin._

_"Did she say anything before she died?" he asked. "Anything about the boy's father, for instance?"_

_"Yes, she did," said Mrs. Cole, who seemed to be rather enjoying herself now, with the gin in her hand and an eager audience for her story._

_"I remember she said, 'I hope he looks like his papa,' and I won't lie, she was right to hope it, because she was no beauty- and then she told me he was to be named Tom, for his father, and Marvolo, for her father- yes, I know, funny name, isn't it? We wondered whether she came from a circus she said the boy's last name was to be Riddle. And she died soon after that without another word. Well, we named him just as she'd said, it seemed so important to the poor girl, but no Tom, Marvolo or any kind of Riddle ever came looking for him. Or any family at all, so he stayed in the orphanage and he's been here ever since." Mrs. Cole helped herself, almost absentmindedly, to another healthy measure of gin._

_Then she said, "He's a funny boy."_

_"Yes," said Dumbledore. "I thought he might be."_

_"He was a funny baby too. He hardly ever cried. And then, when he got a little older, he was… odd."_

_"Odd in what way?" asked Dumbledore gently._

_"Well, he-" But Mrs. Cole pulled up short, and there was nothing blurry or vague about the inquisitorial glance she shot Dumbledore over her gin glass._

_"He's definitely got a place at your school, you say?"_

_"Definitely," said Dumbledore._

_"And nothing I say can change that?"_

_"Nothing," said Dumbledore._

_"You'll be taking him away, whatever?"_

_"Whatever," repeated Dumbledore._

_She decided she could trust him, because she said in a sudden rush,"He scares the other children."_

_"You mean he is a bully?" asked Dumbledore._

_"I think he must be," said Mrs. Cole, frowning slightly, "but it's very hard to catch him at it. There have been incidents... Nasty things..."_

_Dumbledore didn't press her. She took another gulp of gin._

_"Billy Stubbs' rabbit... well, Tom said he didn't do it. And I don't see how he could have done, but even so, it didn't hang itself from the rafters, did it?"_

_"I shouldn't think so, no," said Dumbledore quietly._

_"But I'm jiggered if I know how he got up there to do it. All I know is he and Billy had argued the day before. And then- well, Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop were never quite right afterwards, and all we ever got out of them was that they'd gone into a cave with Tom Riddle. He swore they'd just gone exploring, but something happened in there, I'm sure of it. And, there have been a lot of things... funny things."_

_"I don't think many people will be sorry to see the back of him."_

_"You understand, I'm sure, that we will not be keeping him permanently?" said Dumbledore._

_"He we'll have to return here every summer."_

_"Oh, well, that's better than a whack on the nose with a rusty poker." she said with a slight hiccup._

_She got to her feet._

_"I suppose you'd like to see him?"_

_"Very much." he said getting up too._

_She led him out of her office and up the stone stairs._

_"Here we are," said Mrs. Cole as they turned off the second landing and stopped outside the first door in a long corridor._

_She knocked twice and entered._

_"Tom? You've got a visitor. This is Mr. Dumbledore. He's come to tell you- well, I'll let him do it."_

_Dumbledore entered the room, and Mrs. Cole closed the door on them. It was a small bare room with nothing in it except an old wardrobe and an iron bedstead. A boy was sitting on top of the gray blankets, his legs stretched out in front of him, holding a book._

_There was no trace of the Gaunts in Tom Riddle's face. Merope had got her dying wish: He was his handsome father in miniature, tall for eleven years old, dark-haired, and pale. His eyes narrowed slightly as he took in Dumbledore's eccentric appearance. There was a moment's silence._

_"How do you do, Tom?" said Dumbledore, walking forward and holding out his hand._

_The boy hesitated, then took it, and they shook hands. Dumbledore drew up the hard wooden chair beside Riddle, so that the pair of them looked rather like a hospital patient and visitor._

_"I am Professor Dumbledore."_

_"'Professor'?" repeated Riddle. He looked wary. "Is that like 'doctor'? What are you here for? Did she get you in to have a look at me?"_

_He was pointing at the door through which Mrs. Cole had just left._

_"She wants me looked at, doesn't she? Tell the truth!"_

_He spoke the last three words with a ringing force that was almost shocking._

_It was a command, and it sounded as though he had given it many times before. His eyes had widened and he was glaring at Dumbledore, who made no response except to continue smiling pleasantly._

_After a few seconds Riddle stopped glaring, though he looked, if anything, warier still._

_"Who are you?"_

_"I have told you. My name is Professor Dumbledore and I work at a school called Hogwarts. I have come to offer you a place at my school- your new school, if you would like to come."_

_Riddle's reaction to this was most surprising. He leapt from the bed and backed away from Dumbledore, looking furious._

_"You can't kid me! The asylum, that's where you're from, isn't it? 'Professor,' yes, of course- well, I'm not going, see? That old cat's the one who should be in the asylum. I never did anything to little Amy Benson or Dennis Bishop, and you can ask them, they'll tell you!"_

_"I am not from the asylum," said Dumbledore patiently. "I am a teacher and, if you will sit down calmly, I shall tell you about Hogwarts. Of course, if you would rather not come to the school, nobody will force you-"_

_"I'd like to see them try," sneered Riddle._

_"Hogwarts," Dumbledore went on, as though he had not heard Riddle's last words, "is a school for people with special abilities-"_

_"I'm not mad!"_

_"I know that you are not mad. Hogwarts is not a school for mad people. It is a school of magic."_

_There was silence. Riddle had frozen, his face expressionless, but his eyes were flickering back and forth between each of Dumbledore's, as though trying to catch one of them lying._

_"Magic?" he repeated in a whisper._

_"That's right," said Dumbledore._

_"It's… it's magic, what I can do?"_

_"What is it that you can do?"_

_"All sorts," breathed Riddle._

_A flush of excitement was rising up his neck into his hollow cheeks; he looked fevered._

_"I can make filings move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to."_

_His legs were trembling. He stumbled forward and sat down on the bed again, staring at his hands, his head bowed as though in prayer._

_"I knew I was different," he whispered to his own quivering fingers._

_"I knew I was special. Always, I knew there was something."_

_"Well, you were quite right," said Dumbledore, who was no longer smiling, but watching Riddle intently._

_"You are a wizard." Riddle lifted his head._

_His face was transfigured: There was a wild happiness upon it, yet for some reason it didn't make him better looking; on the contrary, his finely carved features seemed somehow rougher, his expression almost bestial._

_"Are you a wizard too?"_

_"Yes, I am."_

_"Prove it," said Riddle at once, in the same commanding tone he had used when he had said, "Tell the truth."_

_Dumbledore raised his eyebrows._

_"If, as I take it, you are accepting your place at Hogwarts-"_

_"Of course I am!"_

_"Then you will address me as 'Professor' or 'sir.'"_

_Riddle's expression hardened for the most fleeting moment before he said, in an unrecognizably polite voice,_

_"I'm sorry, sir. I meant- please, Professor, could you show me-?"_

_Dumbledore drew his wand from an inside pocket of his suit jacket, pointed it at the shabby wardrobe in the corner, and gave the wand a casual flick. The wardrobe burst into flames._

_Riddle jumped to his feet; howling in shock and rage. But as Riddle rounded on Dumbledore, the flames vanished, leaving the wardrobe completely undamaged._

_Riddle stared from the wardrobe to Dumbledore; then, his expression greedy, he pointed at the wand._

_"Where can I get one of them?"_

_"All in good time," said Dumbledore. "I think there is something trying to get out of your wardrobe."_

_And sure enough, a faint rattling could be heard from inside it. For the first time, Riddle looked frightened._

_"Open the door," said Dumbledore._

_Riddle hesitated, then crossed the room and threw open the wardrobe door. On the topmost shelf, above a rail of threadbare clothes, a small cardboard box was shaking and rattling as though there were several frantic mice trapped inside it._

_"Take it out," said Dumbledore._

_Riddle took down the quaking box. He looked unnerved._

_"Is there anything in that box that you ought not to have?" asked Dumbledore._

_Riddle threw Dumbledore a long, clear, calculating look._

_"Yes, I suppose so, sir," he said finally, in a expressionless voice._

_"Open it," said Dumbledore._

_Riddle took off the lid and tipped the contents onto his bed without looking at them. There was a mess of small, everyday objects: a yo-yo, a silver thimble, and a tarnished mouth organ among them. Once free of the box, they stopped quivering and lay quite still upon the thin blankets._

_"You will return them to their owners with your apologies," said Dumbledore calmly, putting his wand back into his jacket. "I shall know whether it has been done. And be warned: Thieving is not tolerated at Hogwarts."_

_Riddle did not look remotely abashed; he was still staring coldly and appraisingly at Dumbledore._

_At last he said in a colorless voice, "Yes, sir."_

_"At Hogwarts," Dumbledore went on, "we teach you not only to use magic, but to control it. You have- inadvertently, I am sure- been using your powers in a way that is neither taught nor tolerated at our school. You are not the first, nor will you be the last, to allow your magic to run away with you. But you should know that Hogwarts can expel students, and the Ministry of Magic- yes, there is a Ministry- will punish lawbreakers still more severely. All new wizards must accept that, in entering our world, they abide by our laws."_

_"Yes, sir," said Riddle again._

_It was impossible to tell what he was thinking; his face remained quite blank as he put the little cache of stolen objects back into the cardboard box._

_When he had finished, he turned to Dumbledore and said baldly, "I haven't got any money."_

_"That is easily remedied," said Dumbledore, drawing a leather money-pouch from his pocket. "There is a fund at Hogwarts for those who require assistance to buy books and robes. You might have to buy some of your spell books and so on secondhand, but-"_

_"Where do you buy spell books?" interrupted Riddle, who had taken the heavy money bag without thanking Dumbledore, and was now examining a fat gold Galleon._

_"In Diagon Alley," said Dumbledore. "I have your list of books and school equipment with me. I can help you find everything-"_

_"You're coming with me?" asked Riddle, looking up._

_"Certainly, if you-"_

_"I don't need you," said Riddle. "I'm used to doing things for myself; I go round London on my own all the time. How do you get to this Diagon Alley- sir?" he added, catching Dumbledore's eye._

_Dumbledore handed Riddle the envelope containing his list of equipment, and after telling Riddle exactly how to get to the Leaky Cauldron from the orphanage, he said,_

_"You will be able to see it, although Muggles around you- non-magical people, that is- will not. Ask for Tom the barman- easy enough to remember, as he shares your name-"_

_Riddle gave an irritable twitch, as though trying to displace an irksome fly. "You dislike the name 'Tom'?"_

_"There are a lot of Toms," muttered Riddle._

_Then, as though he could not suppress the question, as though it burst from him in spite of himself, he asked,_

_"Was my father a wizard? He was called Tom Riddle too, they've told me."_

_"I'm afraid I don't know," said Dumbledore, his voice gentle._

_"My mother can't have been magic, or she wouldn't have died," said Riddle, more to himself than Dumbledore._

_"It must've been him. So- when I've got all my stuff- when do I come to this Hogwarts?"_

_"All the details are on the second piece of parchment in your envelope," said Dumbledore. "You will leave from King's Cross Station on the first of September. There is a train ticket in there too."_

_Riddle nodded. Dumbledore got to his feet and held out his hand again. Taking it, Riddle said,_

_"I can speak to snakes. I found out when we've been to the country on trips- they find me, they whisper to me. Is that normal for a wizard?"_

_"It is unusual," said Dumbledore, after a moment's hesitation, "but not unheard of."_

_His tone was casual but his eyes moved curiously over Riddle's face. They stood for a moment, man and boy, staring at each other. Then the handshake was broken; Dumbledore was at the door._

_"Good-bye, Tom. I shall see you at Hogwarts."_

_Then they were out of the memory._

"Did you know sir, then?" Harriet asked.

"That I had just met the most dangerous wizard? No. If I did I wouldn't have let him go. Over time while here at Hogwarts, Tom Riddle grew close to one particular teacher."

He looked at Harriet.

"Can you guess who that teacher might be?"

"You didn't ask Professor Slughorn to come back simply to teach, did you Professor?" she asked.

"No, I didn't. You see the reason I brought him back is because he has something we need. But he won't give it to easily."

"You said Professor Slughorn would try and collect me." Harriet started.

"I did." Dumbledore said.

"Do you want me to let him?" she continued.

"Yes."

Then he told her she was done for the day.

She nodded and headed to Gryffindor Common Room.

Chapter 8

A few days later it was quidditch tryouts.

Ron was just standing there while everyone else was talking to each other. Ginny was standing next to her and Hermione and Neville were watching.

"Quiet please!" Harriet yelled.

They all stopped talking and waited.

"Alright, even though you were here last year doesn't mean you will be joining this year to. Got it?" she said using her leadership.

Everyone nodded and remembered what she does to her teams.

As gentle as she is she can still make them work hard.

They all nodded and got into position. Then Harriet had Neville set off everything. She had asked Neville to help a little.

McGonagall had said Harriet was going to stay the seeker.

While they worked on tryouts Harriet watched closely. Ron almost fell on his broom.

"Come on Ron." she whispered.

When they were done Harriet nodded.

"Alright, not bad. When I find out who's on the team I'll give you a schedule. And people that were on the team with Wood, I won't wake you up at five in the morning or things he did to us."

They all sighed in relief. But they had a feeling she wasn't going to be as bad as Wood after being on the team since her first year.

Later that night they were in the common room.

"I have to admit I thought I was gonna miss that last one." Ron said.

Then he looked at Hermione.

"Hope Cormac's not taking it too hard. He's got a bit of a thing for you, Hermione- - Cormac."

"He's vile." she said.

"Have you ever heard of this spell, Sectumsempra?" Harriet asked.

"No I haven't. And if I were you I'd hand the book over to McGonagall." Hermione said.

"Not bloody likely. She's top of the class. She's even better than you Hermione!" Neville said.

"I'd like to know who's book that was." Hermione said while she reached for it.

"No." Harriet said while she stood up and closed it.

"Why not?"

"The binding is fragile."

"The binding is fragile?"

Then Ginny reached over and grabbed it.

"Who's the halfblood prince?" she asked.

"Who?" Neville asked.

"The halfblood Prince. That's what it says right here." she said pointing at it.

'That name sounds familiar. I think gran had brought them up to mum and dad.' Neville thought.

Before they knew it they were at Hogsmead and it was snowing.

"For weeks you've been reading that book, you practically sleep with it!" Hermione said.

"I didn't say I wasn't curious. And I don't sleep with it." Harriet said.

"It's true. I see you reading it every night!" she said.

"Well I was curious so I went to-" she started but was interrupted.

"The library." the three of them said together.

Even though he had joined the three of them fourth year when he started dating Harriet Neville still knew she loved the library.

"And?" Neville asked.

"And nothing." she said.

Then they heard someone.

"Yeah, uh... hoping to find you in the Three Broomsticks. Uh no, emergency choir practice from the freighthorse." Slughorn said.

"Anyone up for a butterbeer?" Harriet asked.

When they got there Harriet looked at Slughorn and wondered what he had done back then.

When Ron was about to sit down Harriet said,

"Uh, I was about to sit there. So can you sit on the other side?"

"Alright." he said.

Then Harriet sat down and looked at him. Neville sat next to her.

'God I wish I could use legilimancy! But I don't know exactly how to do it.' she thought.

While they did that Hermione asked the waiter for four butterbeers.

Then Ron saw Ginny with Dean.

"Oh bloody hell." he said.

Harriet, Neville and Hermione looked at them to.

"Ron see, they're only holding hands." Hermione said rolling her eyes.

Then she saw them do something else.

"And snogging." she continued.

"I'd like to leave." he said.

"What? You can't be serious!" Hermione said.

Harriet twitched at the word 'serious'. She had a picture of Sirius in her head and fought tears in her eyes.

Neville looked at her and squeezed her hand.

She opened her eyes and looked at him smiling a little.

"What if she looked at me and saw us snogging? Do you think she would just get up and leave?" Hermione asked.

"You don't leave when me and Harriet are kissing either." Neville said.

She was leaning on him still calming down a little while he rubbed her back slowly.

"Harriet my girl! You three!" Slughorn said shaking their hand when they stood up.

"Oh Professor it's good to see you." Harriet said.

"So what brings you four here? Some heat and a snack?" he asked.

"Yes sir." she said.

"All hands on deck, Granger, Longbottom. Listen, in the old days, I used to throw together the occassional supper party. Select two student or three. Would you three be game?"

"I consider it an honor sir." Harriet said.

"Me too sir." Neville said.

"Excellent! You're included to Ms. Granger."

She put her drink down.

"I'd be delighted sir." she said.

"Splendid. Look for my owl." Then he turned to Ron. "Good to see you Wallenby."

When he left Harriet sat back down .

Then Ron looked at her.

"What are you on about?"

"Dumbledore wants me to get to know him." she said.

He looked at her confused.

"Get to know him?"

"Dunno. It must be important. If it wasn't, Dumbledore wouldn't ask." she said.

Then they looked at Hermione.

"You got a little bit..." Ron started and pointed his finger on his lip.

She wiped it off her face.

Then they were on their way back to school.

"Ahh!" someone yelled.

Harriet, Neville, Ron and Hermione stopped and looked at what was going on.

"Katie, we don't know what it could be!" she said.

She was going back and forth and then was in the air.

Then Harriet started to walk over to the object.

"Harriet, what are you?" Hermione started.

"I know what I'm doing." she said.

"Step back! Don't get any closer, get back all of ya!" Hagrid said.

Then Harriet picked up a part of the object.

"Do not touch that! Except for the wrapping, do you understand?"

They just looked at each other wondering what happened.

Chapter 9

After that they were in McGonagall's office.

"You're sure Katie didn't have this in her position when she entered the Three Broomsticks?"

"It's like I said, she left to the bathroom. When she came back she had the bag. She said it was important that she deliver."

"Did she say to whom?"

"Professor Dumbledore."

"Very well. Thank you, Leanne. You may go."

When she left McGonagall looked at Harriet, Ron, Neville and Hermione.

"Why is it, that it's always you three? And now four with Longbottom and Potter together!"

"Believe me, Professor, I've been asking myself the same question for six years." Ron said.

"And I'm new at it." Neville said.

Then Snape was passing by.

"Oh Severus!"

He picked up the necklace with his wand.

"What do you think?"

"I think, Ms. Bell, is lucky to be alive." he said lifting it up with his wand.

"She was cursed wasn't she? I know Katie, off the quidditch pitch. She wouldn't hurt a fly. If she was delivering that to Professor Dumbledore, she wasn't doing it knowingly." Harriet said.

"Yes Ms. Potter, she was cursed."

"It was Malfoy."

"That is a very accusation Ms. Potter." McGonagall said.

"Indeed. Your evidence?" Snape asked starring at her in the eyes.

"I just know." she said not looking directly at him.

She could tell he wanted to use legilimancy on her.

"You "just" know. Once again, you're astonished with your gifts, Potter. Gifts mere mortals can only dream of possessing. How grand it must be to be the Chosen One." he said.

The last two words he looked at Harriet. Without thinking she glared directly at him.

"I suggest you go back to your dormitories. All of you." McGonagall said.

Later that night Harriet and Ron were in the common room.

"What do you suppose Dean thinks about her- Ginny? He's brilliant." Ron asked.

"You called him a slick dick five hours ago." Harriet said.

"Yeah, well he was running his hands all over her. Wasn't he? Something snaps. You've got to hate him, you know? Old printable."

"I suppose."

"What do you think about her?"

"I don't know. She's smart and fun has nice skin."

"Skin? You're saying Dean likes her because of her skin? For blood you mean?"

"I'm just saying, it could be a contributing factor."

Ron laid there on the couch in thought.

"Hermione has good skin."

"I suppose yeah."

"Very nice."

"I think I'm going to sleep now." Harriet said and headed to the girl's dormitory.

Chapter 9

A few days later Harriet, Neville and Hermione were at Slughorn's club room.

While they talked Cormac was telling them about his uncle and having his ice cream.

He was going hunting with his uncle and the ministry over the holidays.

"Oh well, be sure to give them both my best. And what about you Ms. Belby? For anyone who doesn't know, Marcus' uncle is who created wolfsbane. Is he working on anything else?" he asked.

"I don't know, he and my dad don't really get along. Probably because my dad says potions are rubbish. His only potion worth having is a stiff one at the end of the day." he said.

"And what about you Ms. Granger? What exactly does your family do in the Muggle world?" Slughorn asked looking at her.

"My parents are dentists." Hermione said.

A lot of people looked at her confused.

"They attend people's teeth." she said.

"Fascinating. And is that considered a dangerous job?"

"No, although, one day Robby Fenwich, bit my father. Ha, he needed ten stitches." she said chuckling.

Then the door was opened and they saw Ginny.

"Ah, Ms. Weasley. Come in, come in." Slughorn said.

"Look at her eyes. She's been fighting again. Her and Dean." Hermione said to Harriet and Neville.

They nodded.

"Sorry, I'm not usually late." Ginny said and shut the door.

"Not at all, not at all. You're just in time for dessert. That is if Belby didn't eat it all." he said.

After the dessert everyone started to leave.

"Good bye, bye bye."

Then he shut the door and he saw Harriet still there. Neville and Hermione were going to meet up with her later.

"Potter!" he said jumping.

"Sorry sir, we were just admiring your hourglass." Harriet said.

"Ah yes, most intriguing object. The sand runs in accordance with the quality of the conversation. It is stimulating, the sand runs slowly. If it is not..."

"I think I'll be going, then." she said.

"Nonsense! You have nothing to fear." Slughorn said. "Actually some of your classmates, well let's just say that they're not likely to make the shelf."

"Shelf sir?" she said confused.

"Anyone who aspires to be anyone hopes to end up here. But then again, you already are someone, aren't you, Harriet?"

"Did Voldemort join the shelf sir? You knew him, didn't you sir? Tom Riddle? You were his teacher." she said.

"Mr. Riddle had a number of teachers who were here at Hogwarts." he said.

"What was he like?" she asked.

Slughorn looked at her.

"I'm sorry sir, he killed my parents." she said.

"Of course, it's only natural you should want to know more. But I'm afraid I must disappoint you, you two. When I first met young Mr. Riddle, he was a quiet, albeit brilliant boy, committed to becoming a first-grade wizard. Not unlike others I've known. Not unlike yourself, in fact. If the monster existed, it was very deep within." he said.

A few minutes later she said goodbye to Slughorn and headed back to the common room.

Chapter 10

Sure enough it was the first game of the year.

Ron was nervous while he headed to the table.

"Alright Ron?" Dean asked.

He got no answer.

"I'm counting on you Ron." Seamus said.

When he got to the table and sat down.

"So how was it then?" Ron asked.

"How was what?" Hermione asked.

"The dinner party."

"Pretty boring actually. Slughorn is celebrating Christmas to you know. And I'm about to bring someone." Hermione said.

"I expect you're bringing McLaggen. He's in the Slug club to isn't he?" Ron asked.

"Actually I was going to ask you." she said.

Then Astrid appeared.

"Good luck today Ron. I know you'll be brilliant." she said.

When she left he looked at Harriet.

"I'm resigning, after today."

"Have it your way." she picked up a cup. "Juice."

"Hello everyone." Luna said with a lion on her face.

"You look dreadful Ron. Is that why you put something in his cup? Is it atomic?" she asked.

Hermione looked at her and then the potion.

"Liquid luck." Hermione said

Ron looked at it and picked it up.

"Don't drink it Ron!" she said.

Then he drank it and Hermione looked at Harriet.

"You could be expelled for that." she said.

"I don't know what you're talking about." she said.

"Come on Harriet, we've got a game to win!" Ron said.

Then they shook hands and headed to the game.

While the game went on Ron was getting every ball away from the goal hoops blocked.

Harriet looked around for the snitch and watched him.

Everyone was yelling Ron's name over and over again.

"YEAH! WHOA! YEAH!" Ron yelled.

When the game was over they were all cheering Ron's name.

"Weasley! Weasley! Weasley!"

"Knew you shouldn't have done it." Hermione said.

"I know, I could have used the cofungus charm instead." Harriet said.

Neville started chuckling a little. Harriet had told him her plan on their way to breakfast.

"That was different. That was try-outs, this was a natural game."

While she said that Harriet took out her potion.

"You didn't put it in? Ron only thought you did."

Then they looked at them again.

Astrid walked over to him and kissed him.

Hermione stood there for a few seconds and then left.

Harriet looked at Neville and he nodded. Then she went to find Hermione.

When she found her she saw her crying. She sat down next to her.

"Charm spell, I'm just practicing." she said.

"Well you're really good." Harriet said.

"How does it feel Harriet? To know you have Neville? You're one of my best friends. And I just wanna know." she said.

Then they heard someone laughing and saw Ron and Astrid.

"Oops, I think this room is taken." Astrid said when she saw them.

"What's with the birds?" Ron asked when she left.

Hermione stood up and looked at him.

"Oppugno!"

Then the birds started aiming at him and he jumped around then left.

She started to cry again.

Harriet gave her a hug and helped her to calm down.

The next day Harriet and Hermione were at the library. Hermione was putting books away.

"I'm a free agent. He's at perfect liberty to kiss whomever he likes." Hermione said putting another book away.

"I really couldn't care less. Was I under the impression he and I would be attending Slughorn's Christmas party together? Yes. Now, given the circumstances, I had to make other arrangements." she continued.

"Have you?" Harriet asked.

"Yes. Why?" she said.

"I was just wondering who you're going with."

"Um, it's a surprise. Anyways, you have got to worry about. You can't take anyone. You see that boy over there? That's Ryan Vane. He's been trying to make a love potion."

"Why?" she asked.

"He's only interested in you because you're the Chosen One."

"I may be the Chosen One but I'm fine with Neville." she said.

Later that night Harriet and Neville were on their way to the party.

When they got there Seamus appeared with a drink.

"Drink?" he asked.

"Seamus!" Harriet said.

"I didn't get into the Slug Club. It's Ok though. He's got Melvin hanging up towels in the bathroom." he said.

"I'm fine thanks."

"Same here." Neville said.

"OK." he said.

Then they saw Hermione going behind a curtain. So they headed to where she was.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" Neville said.

"What happened to you?" Harriet asked.

"No I just escaped. I mean, I left Cormac under the mistletoe."

"Cormac? That's who you invited?!" Harriet said shocked.

"I thought it would annoy Ron." she said.

Then someone came something.

"Dragon tails?" he asked.

"I'm fine thanks." Hermione said.

Harriet and Neville shook their head.

"Just this one. They give you a horrible breath." he said.

"On second thought," Hermione said.

She grabbed the entire helping.

When she got one in her mouth she saw Cormac coming.

"Oh god here he comes."

She handed Harriet the food and left. A few seconds later Cormac came.

"She just left to powder her nose." she said.

"She's a bit of a minx. Isn't she?" he said taking some food.

"Yeah, yeah." Harriet said.

"What is this anyway?"

"Dragon balls." Neville said.

A few seconds later Snape appeared and Cormac threw up on top of his shoe.

"You just got a month detention. Not, so quick Potter, Longbottom."

They stopped and looked at him.

"We really should get back to the party sir." Harriet said.

"Yeah." Neville said.

"I'm sure your can wait a few minutes. This is from Professor Dumbledore saying he wishes you two a happy Christmas. He's traveling now."

"Traveling where?" Harriet asked.

Then Snape was interrupted by someone.

"Get your hand off me you squib!" Malfoy said.

"Professor Slughorn sir. I just discovered this boy lurking in the upstairs corridor. He claims to be invited to your party." Filch said.

"OK OK I was gate-crossing happy?" Malfoy said.

"I'll, escort him out." Snape said.

"Certainly, Professor." he said pulling his arm off Filch.

"Alright everyone, carry on, carry on." Slughorn said.

Harriet looked at Neville and then they followed Snape and Malfoy.

"Maybe I did hex that Bell girl. Maybe I didn't. What about you?" Malfoy said.

"I swore to protect you. I made the Unbreakable Vow!" Snape said.

"I don't need protection. I was chosen for this. This is my moment!"

Harriet looked at Neville.

"An unbreakable vow?" Neville said.

"What's an unbreakable vow?" she asked.

"It's when you swear to do something. And if you break it you die." he explained.

She nodded quietly thinking.

Chapter 11

Sure enough they were on their way home.

"An unbreakable vow? Are you sure that's what Snape said?" Ron said.

"Positive." Harriet said.

Then they heard something and looked at what it was.

"Oh bloody hell." Ron said.

It was Astrid drawing a heart and R+A from her breath.

"Lovely." Harriet said.

"All she wants to do it snog me. My lips are chapped look!" he said.

"We'll take your word for it." Neville said.

Then Hermione came, saw the words and left.

Later that night they were at the Burrow.

"Voldemort has chosen Draco Malfoy for a mission?" Remus said.

"I know it sounds weird, but that's what I heard." Harriet said.

"Has it ever occurred to you that Severus was pretending to protect Draco help so he could find out what he was up to?" Remus said.

"Ginny!" Molly called.

"Maybe she's right, I mean to make an unbreakable vow-" Tonks started.

"It comes down to this and everyone knows Dumbledore trusts Snape. There for I do." Remus said.

"Dumbledore can make mistakes. He said it himself last year." Harriet said.

"You are blinded by hatred."

"I'm not." she said.

"Yes, you are!" Remus said.

Then he calmed down.

"People are disappearing, Harriet. Daily. We could only place our trust in a handful of people. If we started fighting amongst ourselves, we're doomed!"

Then he stood up and left.

Tonks did the same thing. Then Neville came and sat down next to Harriet.

"Open up you. Don't you trust me?" he said.

She opened her mouth and he put it in.

"It's good." she said.

Then Ron came and sat in between them.

"Just Ahh," he started and sat down.

Harriet and Neville sat there a little upset.

"Pie?" he asked.

"Not for me thanks." Harriet said.

An hour later Harriet was with Arthur.

"You'll have to forgive Remus. It takes its toll, his condition." Arthur said.

"Are you alright, Mr. Weasley?" Harriet asked.

"We're being followed, all of us. Most days, Molly doesn't leave the house. It's not been easy." he said.

"Did you get my owl?" she asked.

"Yes, I did. If Dumbledore is traveling, then perhaps news to the Ministry, but perhaps that's the way Dumbledore wants it. As for Draco Malfoy... I know a bit more." he said.

"Go on." she said.

"I sent an agent to Borgin and Burkes. I think from what you described... What you saw at the end of summer, the object that Draco is so interested in, is a Vanishing Cabinet." he said.

"Vanishing Cabinet?"

"Yes. But they were all the rage when Voldemort first rose to power. They got rid of them all after he was gone." he said.

"What happened to it? The one at Borgin and Burkes?" Harriet asked.

"Nothing. It's still there." he said.

After dinner Remus and Tonks were about to leave.

"It was delicious Molly." Tonks said.

"Are you sure you can't stay?" she said.

"No, we should go. First night of the cycle is always the worst." she whispered.

Remus was just standing there as if he could sense something.

"Sweetheart?" she said.

Harriet was about to go get ready for bed but bumped into Neville. He was going to spend the night.

"Has Ginny gone to bed?" Neville said when he was about to go to.

"No not yet." she said.

"Your shoe is untied." he said.

Then he went down and tied it for her.

"Happy Christmas Harriet." he said when he was back up.

"Happy Christmas Neville." she said back.

Then they kissed each other.

A few minutes later they heard something and looked out the window. Then they saw Belatrix Lestrange.

Harriet got down the stairs and started running to her.

"Harriet no!" Remus yelled.

He started running after her.

"Remus!" Tonks said and started running to.

"Neville!" Arthur said while Neville started running to Harriet.

"I killed Sirius Black! I killed Sirius Black! You coming to get me? Get me! She's trying to get me!" Belatrix said while she ran.

Neville kept running and stopped when he got to the lake.

"Harriet?" he said looking around.

Then someone came out and was aiming at Neville.

"Stupefy!" Harriet yelled.

"Harriet!" Remus yelled out.

"Neville!" Arthur yelled out.

When they got there they started dueling three Death Eaters. While they did that they started to fly. When one of them got to the burrow it was set on fire.

"Molly." Arthur said and started running.

When he got there he saw her standing outside the house. The house was on fire.

Chapter 12

Before they knew it they were on their way to school.

"It's so easy for them to get to you. You're bloody lucky you weren't killed. You have to realize who you are, Harriet!" Hermione said walking to the table with the Prophet in her hands.

"I know who I am, Hermione, alright?" she said.

Then she turned around.

"Sorry."

Ron was sitting there with Astrid and the three of them were disgusted.

"Excuse me I have to go vomit." Hermione said.

Later that night Harriet was in Dumbledore's office again.

They were watching the next penesive.

_"Sir, is it true that Professor Merrythought is retiring?" Tom asked._

_"Tom, I couldn't tell you if I knew, could I? And by the way, thank you for the pineapple. You're quite right. It is my favorite. But how did you know?" Slughorn said._

_"Intuition." he said._

_Then Slughorn looked at the time._

_"Good gracious, is it that time already? Off you go, boys, or Professor Dippett will have us all in detention."_

_Next was Tom tapping Slughorn's time castle._

_"Look sharp, Tom. Don't be caught out of bed after hours. Is something on your mind, Tom?"_

_"Yes, sir. See, I couldn't think of anyone else to go to. The other professors... Well, they're not like you. They might misunderstand."_

_"Go on."_

_"I was in the library the other night. In the restricted section. And I picked something rather odd about this rare magic. I thought perhaps, you could illuminate me. It's called, as I understand it, horcrux."_

_"I beg your pardon? I don't know anything about such things and if I did, I wouldn't tell you. Now get out of here at once and don't let me ever catch you mentioning them again!"_

When they we're gone Harriet sat down.

"Confused? I'd be surprised if you weren't." Dumbledore said.

"I don't understand. What happened?" Harriet said.

"This is perhaps the most important memory of them all. But it's also a lie. This memory has been tampered with by our old friend, Professor Slughorn himself." Dumbledore said.

"But why would he tamper his own memory?" she asked.

"I suppose he's ashamed of himself." Dumbledore said.

"Why?"

"Why indeed. I asked you to get to know him and you did so. Now I want you to persuade him to divulge him his true memory. Any way you can."

They sat there quietly.

"I don't know him that well sir." she said.

"This memory is everything. Without it, we're blind. Without it, we leave the fate of our world to chance. You have no choice. You must not fail."

She looked at Dumbledore and nodded.

"I'll do the best I can sir."

The next day they were in potions and listening to Slughorn.

Harriet had a little trouble focusing on class.

"I highly recommend, reacquaint yourself with the chapter on antidotes. Now, I'll tell you more about bezoars in our next class. Right, off you go. Elise, don't forget your rat tail." he said.

When everyone was gone he saw Harriet.

"Aha! If it isn't the princess of potions herself! What do I owe this pleasure?" he said.

"I was just wondering if I could ask you something." Harriet said.

"Ask away, dear girl, Ask away." he said.

"Well I was in the library in the restricted section, and came across something odd about a rare piece of magic." she said.

"And what would that rare piece of magic be?"

She could tell he was a little nervous.

"Well, I don't know what it is exactly. I was just wondering, is there a type of magic we're not allowed to learn about?"

"I'm a potions master. I think you should talk to Professor Snape about this." he said.

"Yes well, you see the two of us don't see eye to eye together. What I mean to say is, well he's not like you. He might misunderstand us." she said.

"Yes, it would be no light without dark. And so it's with magic myself I always strive to live within the light. I suggest you do the same." he said.

"Is that what you told Tom Riddle sir? When he came asking questions?" she asked.

Then Slughorn froze.

"Dumbledore put you up to this didn't he? Didn't he?!"

She stood there quietly and then left.

Later that night she went back to his office and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" he said sticking his head out.

"Oh, I'm sorry Harriet I'm busy right now."

Then he shut the window.

When she got back she saw Ron sitting on the ground looking out the window.

"It's beautiful isn't it? The moon." Ron said.

"Devine. Have ourselves a late night snack did we?" Harriet said.

"It was on the table with your name on it, the box. Thought I'd have one."

She snorted. "Or twenty."

"I can't stop thinking about him Harriet."

"Honestly, you know I reckon she's starting to annoy you."

Then she realized he said 'him' and not 'her'.

"He could never annoy me. I think I love him." Ron said while he stood up and started to walk over to her.

"Well, brilliant."

"Do you think he knows I exist?"

Harriet stood there confused.

"I very well hope she does. I mean she's been snogging you for three months."

"Snogging? Who are you talking about?"

"Who are you talking about?"

"Ryan of course. Ryan Vance."

"OK very funny."

Then Ron threw the box at her and got her head.

"What's that for?" she asked.

"It's no joke, I'm in love with him!"

"Alright you're in love with him. Have you ever really met him?"

"No. Could you introduce me?"

Harriet headed to the table and looked up at the note. She noticed what it was.

_'A love potion.'_ she thought.

Then she walked over to Ron and grabbed his hand.

"Come on Ron. Let's go meet Ryan."

When they got to where they were headed Harriet knocked on the door. When the window was opened he looked at Harriet.

"I'm sorry sir, I wouldn't have bothered you if it weren't absolutely essential."

"Where's Ryan?" Ron asked.

"What's wrong with Wimby?"

Harriet got a little closer.

"Very powerful love potion."

"Very well, better bring him in."

So he opened the door and Harriet and Ron walked in. Then Harriet had him sit down.

"I always thought you could whip up a remedy for this time Harriet."

"I thought it this called for more practiced hands sir."

"Hello darling." Ron said and put his hands around his arm.

"Perhaps you're right." Slughorn said.

So Harriet had Ron sit back down.

"I'm sorry about earlier today Professor. Our misunderstanding." she said.

"Oh, not at all. Old water under the bridge you know. Correct?"

"Well I expect you're tired a bit, after all these years. And the questions about Voldemort."

"Don't use that name!"

Then he handed Ron the potion.

"Here you are boy. Bottoms up."

"What's this?" Ron asked.

"Tonic for the nerves." Slughorn said.

After he drank it Ron was confused.

"What happened to me?" he asked.

"Love potion." Harriet said.

"A bloody strong one at there." Slughorn said.

"I feel really bad." Ron said.

"You need a pick up my boy. Got butterbeer, wine, dazzling oak-matured mead. I had other intentions for this, but I think given the circumstances like this."

He poured three glasses of the drink.

"Here you are Potter. To life!"

Then Ron was on the ground shaking.

"Ron! Ron!" Then she looked at Slughorn. "Professor, do something!"

"I, I don't understand!"

Harriet looked at the box of things and then found what he was looking for.

She put the potion in Ron's mouth and closed it.

"Come on Ron, breath!"

Ron started coughing.

"These boys, they're trying to kill me."

Then he was on his back out cold.

Chapter 13

Harriet, Neville, Hermione, Ginny, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Slughorn were in the hospital wing looking at Ron.

"Quick thinking on your part Harriet using bezoar. You should be very proud of your student Horace." Dumbledore said.

"Ah yes, very proud." he said.

"I think we agree, Potter's actions were heroic. The question is, why were they necessary?" McGonagall said.

"I, indeed. This appears to be a gift Horace. You don't remember who gave you this bottle? By the way, it possesses remarkably subtle hints of liquorice and cherry. When not polluted with poison." Dumbledore said.

"Actually I had intended to give it as a gift myself." Slughorn said.

"To whom might I ask?"

"To you headmaster."

"Where is he? Where's my won-won? Has he been asking for me?" Astrid said.

Then she saw Hermione sitting next to him.

"What is she doing here?"

"I might ask you the same thing." Hermione said.

"I happen to be his girlfriend!"

"I happen to be his, friend." she said.

"Don't make me laugh! You haven't spoken to him in weeks. I suppose you want to make it up to him now that he's suddenly all interesting?"

"He's been poisoned you daft dumbo! And for the record, I've always found him interesting." Hermione said.

Then Ron started to mutter something.

"See? He senses my presents. Don't worry Won-Won, I'm here. I'm here." she said.

"Hermione. Hermione. Hermione." Ron continued to say.

Astrid started crying and ran away.

"Oh to be young and to feel love's keen sting. Well, come over, everybody. Mr. Weasley's well attended." Dumbledore said.

"About time, don't you think?" Ginny said.

Harriet and Neville nodded.

"Thank you." Harriet said to Madam Pumfrey.

"Shut up." Hermione said while Harriet and Neville smirked at her.

The next day Ron was staring at Astrid when snow started to come.

"Stop it Ron. You're making it snow." Hermione said.

Harriet got all the snow off the table.

"Tell me why I broke up with Lavender again." Ron said.

"Well, she came to visit you in the hospital. And you, talked. I don't believe it was a particular long conversation." Hermione said.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm bloody thrilled to be shot of her's. She seems a bit, put out." Ron said.

"Yes, she does doesn't she? You say you don't remember anything from that night? Anything at all?" Hermione said.

"There is something. It can't be. I was completely boggled, didn't I?"

Hermione saw Katie walk by.

"Harriet, It's Katie. Katie Bell."

She shut her book and stood up.

"Katie, how are you?" she asked.

"I know you're going to ask Harriet. But I don't know who cursed me. I've been trying to remember, I just can't." Katie said.

"Katie."

Then Harriet turned around and saw Malfoy. Malfoy turned around and rushed to the bathroom.

Harriet followed him quickly.

When she got there she heard him crying a little.

"I know what you did Malfoy. You hexed her didn't you?"

Then Malfoy aimed a spell at her but missed.

Then Harriet did the same thing.

After she got away from the next one she said,

_"Sectumsempra!"_

Then she walked over to Malfoy and saw him bleeding. Snape came out of nowhere and looked at him for a second but then walked over to Malfoy.

Later that night Harriet, Ron, Neville and Hermione were in the common room.

"You have to get rid of it. Today." Neville said.

So they stood up. Then they left the room and headed somewhere.

"Take my hand." he said.

When they got there Harriet noticed where they were.

"The Room of Requirements." she said.

"We need to hide the half-blood prince's book. Where you and nobody else can find it." he said.

Then they heard something.

"What was that?" they said together.

"See, you never know what might happen here. Alright, close your eyes."

She closed them and he put them somewhere and then he came back. When he came back he put his mouth on Harriet's and then they kissed each other.

Chapter 14

The next day Harriet was talking to Ron.

"Did you and Neville do it then? You know, hide the book?" Ron said.

"What? Oh, yeah." she said.

They saw Slughorn walk by.

"Still no luck with Slughorn huh?"

"Liquid Luck!" Harriet said.

So they headed to the common room and sat down. Then Harriet swallowed it and the other three looked at her.

"Well, how do you feel?" Neville asked.

"Excellent, really excellent!" she said.

"Remember, Slughorn usually leaves early, goes for a walk and then goes back to his office." Hermione said.

"Right. I'm going to visit Hagrid." she said.

"What? No Harriet we've got to speak to Slughorn!" Hermione said.

"I know but I have a really good feeling that we need to go see him. You understand?"

"No." the three said.

"Well trust me, I know what I'm doing. Or, Felix does."

So she left. When she left the room she started to head to Hagrid's. When she was close to his hut she saw Slughorn at Professor Sprout's plants. She walked over to him.

When she got there she made him jump.

"Ahh! Oh, Harriet I thought you were Professor Sprout." he said.

"Sorry about that sir. I should have coughed before we did that. You probably thought I were Professor Sprout. Definitely." she said.

"What makes you think?" he said.

"Your behavior sir."

"Exactly how did you two get out of the castle?"

"Oh through the front door sir. I was on my way to visit Hagrid. You see he's a very dear friend to me. So if you'll excuse me I'll be going now." she said.

"Harriet!"

"Sir?" she said.

"It's nearly night fall!"

"Well why don't you come along sir?"

So they started to leave and head to Hagrid.

"Harriet! I must consider going back to the school!" he said following them.

"I haven't seen him in a few weeks sir and since it's nice out I'm still going to do it." she said.

When they got there they saw Hagrid standing there with Aragog in front of him.

He sniffled. "Horace."

"Merlin's beard! Is that an actual Acromantula?" he asked.

"A dead one, I think sir." Harriet said.

"Good God. How exactly did you manage to kill it?" Slughorn asked.

"Kill it? He's my oldest friend he was." Hagrid said.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't-"

"It's alright. 'Sniffle' magnificent he was, just magnificent."

"Not to mention the pinchers." Harriet said.

"Yeah an' That to."

"Would you like me to say a few words?" Slughorn asked.

"Yes." Hagrid said.

"Farewell,"

"Aragog."

"Farewell, Aragog. King of the arachnids. Your body will decay... but your spirit lingers on and your human friends find solace, the loss they have sustained."

After that they headed to Hagrid's hut.

"Laid to rest, And his wand, snapped in two, Which was sad." Hagrid and Slughorn sang together.

Harriet started clapping.

"I had him from an egg you see. Tiny little thing he was when he hatched. No bigger than a Pekingese. A Pekingese, mind you." Hagrid said.

"I once had a fish, Francis he was called. He was very dear to me. Then one day, poof! He was gone."

"That's odd." Hagrid said.

"Yes very odd. But that's life! I suppose you go along with and then out of nowhere, poof!"

"Poof!" Hagrid said.

"Poof." Harriet said.

Then Hagrid was out of it and asleep.

"It was a student that gave me Francis. I saw a bow on my desk."

The two of them sat there quietly for a few minutes. Then Slughorn said something.

"I know why you're here, but I can't help you. It would ruin me." he said.

"Do you know why I survived sir? The night I got this." she started and pointed at her scar. "Because her love was to powerful was more powerful than Voldemort."

"Don't say his name." he said waving his hand.

"I'm not afraid of the name Professor. I'm going to tell you something. Something people have only guessed at."

She stood up and walked over to him.

"It's true. I am the Chosen One. Only I can destroy him and in order for me to do that I need to know what Tom Riddle asked you and what you told him."

He shook his head.

"Be brave Professor, be brave like my mother. Other wise you disgrace her. Other why's she died for nothing."

He started to take out a pensive and his wand.

"Please don't blame me, I had know idea what he was doing." he said and took out the memory.

While his hand shook Harriet held onto it to calm him down.

Chapter 15

When she got back to school she headed to Dumbledore's office.

"Sir, I got the memory we needed." Harriet said.

"Excellent! Harriet, this is spectacular news! Very well done indeed! I knew you could do it!" Dumbledore said smiling.

So he put down the memory and then they went inside.

_"I was in the library the other day. In the restricted section... and I read something rather odd about this rare magic. It's called, as I understand it, a Horcrux." Tom said._

_"I beg your pardon?" Slughorn said._

_"Horcrux. I came across the term while reading... and I didn't fully understand it."_

_"I'm not sure what you were reading, Tom, but this is very dark stuff. Very dark, indeed."_

_"Which is... why I came to you."_

_"A horcrux is an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul." he started to explain._

_"But I don't understand how that works, sir. One splits one's soul and hides part of it in an object."_

_"By doing so, you are protected should you be attacked and your body destroyed."_

_"Protected? That part of your soul which is hidden lives on. In other words, you cannot die."_

_"And how does one splits his soul, sir?"_

_Harriet noticed Tom playing with the ring._

_"I think you already know the answer to that, Tom."_

_"Murder."_

_"Yes, killing rips the soul apart and it is a violation against nature."_

_"Can you only split the soul once? For instance, isn't seven-"_

_"Seven? Merlin's beard, Tom Isn't it bad enough to consider killing one person? To rip the soul in seven pieces! This is all hypothetical, isn't it, Tom? All academic?"_

_He turned around and looked at him._

_"Of course, sir. It'll be our little secret."_

_Then they were out of it._

"Sir?" she started.

Dumbledore raised his hand.

"This is beyond what I imagined." he said.

"Do you mean sir, that he succeeded?"

"Oh yes, he succeeded. And not just once."

He headed to his desk.

"What are they exactly?"

"Could be anything. A ring for example."

He pushed up the ring.

"Or a book."

Then he picked up the book.

"Tom Riddle's diary." Harriet said.

"It's a horcrux yes. Four years ago when you saved Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets the memory was scared when you were destroying it. After that you brought me this. I knew it then was a very dark and powerful object. Until tonight I had no idea how powerful."

"And the ring?"

"Belonged to his mother. It was different to find but even more difficult to destroy."

"But if we can find and destroy each horcrux we can destroy Voldemort. How could you find and destroy them? They could be anywhere!" Harriet said.

"True, but magic, especially dark magic can leave a trace."

"It's where you've been going sir. Isn't it? When you leave school?"

"Yes. And I think I might have found another one. But this time I can't hope to destroy it alone."

He looked at Harriet. "Once again I must ask to much of you two."

She looked back at Dumbledore and nodded.

Chapter 16

While Harriet headed to meet up with Dumbledore she heard him and Snape.

"Did you ever cross your brilliant mind that I don't want to do this anymore? That you ask to much?" Snape said.

"Whether it has or hasn't is irrelevant. I will not negotiate with you, Severus. You agreed. Nothing more to discuss." Dumbledore said.

So Snape left and then looked at Harriet. Then continued to leave.

After that Harriet headed to Dumbledore.

"Oh Harriet. You know, I forgot how much you have grown. At times I still see the small girl I trained a bit and visited."

She smiled.

"Forgive my mawkishness you. I'm an old man." he said.

"You still look the same to me sir." she said.

"Just like your mother you are unfailingly kind. A trait people never fail to undervalue, I'm afraid. The place to which we journey tonight is extremely dangerous. I promise you for the company of me and I stand by that promise. But there's one condition. You must obey every command I give you without question."

"Yes sir." she said.

"You understand what I'm saying right? Should I tell you to run, you run. Should I tell you to hide you hide. Should I tell you to leave me here and protect yourselves you do so. Your word Harriet."

"My word." she said.

"Good, now we're going to be apparating to get to where we will."

"Sir, I don't have an apparation license yet. My test is next week."

"Take my arms then. And good luck on your test next week." Dumbledore said.

So she took his hand and then they were gone.

A few seconds later they were on a rock in the ocean across from a cave.

When they got across the water and off the ocean Dumbledore looked around.

"This is the place. Oh yes." he said.

Then he took out a knife and started cutting his hand.

"Sir." Harriet said.

"In order to gain passages payment must be made." he said.

"You should have let me sir."

"Oh no Harriet. Your blood is more precious than mine." he said.

Then he put his hand and waved it against the wall.

When it was open they walked over to where it was close.

When they got there they looked at what's across from them.

Dumbledore made some light go to it.

"There it is. The question is how do we get there?"

"Perhaps accio would work?" Harriet said.

"Good idea, why don't you try Harriet." Dumbledore said.

"OK, accio!"

It didn't work.

"Hmm, good try Harriet." he said.

Then he thought of something and put his hand in front of the water.

Then something started to come out.

"Harriet if you will."

She started pulling the string and the boat got closer. So they went into it and headed across the water.

When they got there they helped each other up to the rocks.

"Do you think this is the horcrux sir?" she said.

"Oh yes. The question is how?" Dumbledore said.

Then he saw the cup and picked it up.

"You remember the conditions on which I brought you with me? This potion might paralyze me. I may risk to get what I'm here. It'd cause me so much pain that I'd beg for relief. It's your job, Harriet to make sure I keep drinking this potion. Even if you have to force it down my throat. Understood?"

"Why can't I drink it sir?" she asked.

"Because I am much older. You're in good health Harriet."

Then he picked some up and put it in his mouth. He started shaking a bit.

"Professor!"

Harriet looked at the cup and got some more.

"You have to keep drinking like you said, remember?" she said.

"Stop." Dumbledore said.

"I will stop. But only- only if you keep drinking."

Then she put some in his mouth.

"Don't make me- Kill me." he said fighting her hand.

"I'm sorry, sir."

"Kill me! All my fault. My fault." he said.

Finally she was on the last one.

"Just one more, sir. One more, I promise. I promise I'll do what you say." she said.

"No, no."

"I promise!" she said.

So Dumbledore opened his mouth and Harriet put it in his mouth. Harriet headed over to the empty shelf while then helped Dumbledore sit up.

"We did it sir! We did it."

"Harriet, water. Water." Dumbledore said.

"Water."

She put the locket in her pocket and took out her wand.

_"Aguamenti!"_

Then some water came but didn't work.

Then she turned around and headed to the lake and put the cup in it.

When she had water in the cup she was grabbed by people. She got them off.

_"Lumos maxima!"_

Then she saw bodies and started aiming at them.

_"Stupefy! Stupefy! Sectumsempra!"_

"Harriet..." Dumbledore said reaching for his wand.

_"Incarcerous! Stupefy!"_

"Harriet... Harriet..."

_"Partis Temporus!"_

Then she was underwater and trying to get up to the air but had trouble. She still didn't know how to swim. Suddenly fire started out of nowhere.

She found something to grab then was up in the air, coughing then looked behind herself then saw Dumbledore.

"Come on."

So she grabbed Dumbledore's hands and worked as hard as she could to get them back.

Chapter 17

A few seconds later they were in the astronomy Tower.

"We have to get you to the hospital wing sir. To Madam Pomfrey." she said tired.

"No, Severus, get Severus." Dumbledore said.

"But sir."

"Harriet do what I say, trust me." he said interrupting her.

So she headed to the stairs.

When she was on her way there she heard Dumbledore say something.

"Good evening Draco."

"Who were you just talking to?" Malfoy said.

"I was just talking to myself. Have you always been to yourself Draco? Draco, you are assassin."

"How do you know what I am? I've done things that shock you."

"Oh, like cursing Katie Bell and hoping that in return she would bear a cursed necklace to me? Like replacing a bottle of mead with one lace with poison. Forgive me, Draco, I cannot help feel these actions are so weak that your... heart can't really have been in." Dumbledore said.

"He trust me. I was chosen!" Malfoy said and took out his mark.

"I shall make it easy for you." Dumbledore said.

_"Expelliarmus!"_

Then Dumbledore's wand fell out of his hand.

"Very good, very good. You're not alone. There are others. How?"

"The vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirements. I've been mending it."

"I'm guessing it has a sister."

"A twin. In Borgin and Burkes. They form a passage." Malfoy said.

"Ingenious. Draco, years ago, I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices. Please let me help you."

"I don't want your help. Don't you understand? I have to do this. I have to kill you. Or he's gonna kill me." he said scared.

"Well look who we have here. Well done Draco." Bellatrix said.

Harriet pointed her wand but then saw Snape. He put a finger on his lips telling her to stay quiet. So she looked back up.

"Good evening, Bellatrix. I think introductions aren't over, don't you?" Dumbledore said.

"Love to, Albus, but I'm afraid we're on a bit of tight schedule. Do it!" she said.

"He doesn't have the stomach. Just like his father. Let me finish him in my own way." someone else said.

"No, the Dark Lord was clear the boy has to do it. This is your moment, Draco. Do it! Go on, Draco, now!" Bellatrix said.

"No." Snape said.

"Severus. Please..." Dumbledore said.

He took out his wand and said,

_"Avada Kedavra."_

Harriet stood there in shock.

Then she came back and started running after Snape.

When she got there Bellatrix was starting Hagrid's hut on fire.

"Snape!" she yelled.

He turned around and saw Harriet running to him.

"He trusted you!" she yelled.

"Go on!" Snape said to Bellatrix.

_"Incarcerous!"_ she yelled.

He just waved the spell away from himself with his wand.

"Fight back, you coward! Fight back!"

Then Bellatrix aimed a curse at Harriet.

"No, she belongs to the Dark Lord." Snape said.

She frowned and turned around.

_"Sectumsempra!"_ she yelled.

Snape just pushed it back like before.

"You dare use my own spells against me?"

Harriet sat up.

"Yes Potter, I'm the halfblood Prince."

When Snape was gone Harriet walked to Dumbledore's body.

When she got there she sat down next to him and started crying a little. Then Neville came over and grabbed her side and she cried on his shoulder.

McGonagall raised her wand and some light went off.

Everyone else did the same thing.

Chapter 18

The next day Harriet was in Dumbledore's office.

"Potter." someone said.

She turned around and saw McGonagall.

"Enlighten of recent events, if you should have the need to talk to someone..."

Harriet started leaving.

"You should know," She looked at her and listened. "You meant a great deal to him."

Later that night Harriet, Ron, Neville and Hermione were outside on the balcony.

"Did you think he would have done it, Draco?" Hermione asked.

"No. No he was lowering his wand. It was Snape. It was always Snape. But I did nothing." Harriet said.

She handed Hermione the locket.

"It's fake. Open it." she said.

She opened it and unfolded the paper.

"To the Dark Lord,

I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more.

R.A.B

"R.A.B?" she said.

"I don't know. But wherever they are they have the real horcrux. Which means it was all a waste." Harriet said.

Then they turned around and leaned on arm.

"I'm not coming back Hermione. I've got to finish whatever Dumbledore started. And I don't know where that will leave me. But I'll let you know where I am when I can." Harriet said.

"I've always admired your courage, Harriet. But sometimes, you can be really thick. You don't really think you're going to be able to find all those horcruxes by yourself, do you? You need us, Harriet." Hermione said.

She just sat there quietly and looked at the school.

"I never realized how beautiful this place was." Harriet said.

Then they saw Fawkes flying by.

They were going to be busy next year. But to end the war they'll do anything.


	3. Chapter 3

Harriet and Dumbledore approached the back door of the Burrow, which was surrounded by the familiar litter of old Wellington boots and rusty cauldrons; Harriet could hear the soft clucking of sleepy chickens coming from a distant shed. Dumbledore knocked three times and Harriet saw sudden movement behind the kitchen window.

"Who's there?" said a nervous voice he recognized as Mrs. Weasley's. "Declare yourself!"

"It is I, Dumbledore, bringing Harriet."

The door opened at once. There stood Mrs. Weasley, short, plump, and wearing an old green dressing gown.

"Harriet, dear! Gracious, Albus, you gave me a fright, you said not to expect you before morning!"

"We were lucky," said Dumbledore, ushering Harriet over the threshold. "Slughorn proved much more persuadable than I had expected. Harriet's doing, of course. Ah, hello, Nymphadora!"

Harriet looked around and saw that Mrs. Weasley was not alone, despite the lateness of the hour. A young witch with a pale, heart-shaped face and mousy brown hair was sitting at the table clutching a large mug between her hands.

"Hello, Professor," she said.

"Wotcher, Who's there?" said a nervous voice he recognized as Mrs. Weasley's. "Declare yourself!"

"It is I, Dumbledore, bringing Harriet."

The door opened at once. There stood Mrs. Weasley, short, plump, and wearing an old green dressing gown.

"Harriet, dear! Gracious, Albus, you gave me a fright, you said not to expect you before morning!"

"We were lucky," said Dumbledore, ushering Harriet over the threshold. "Slughorn proved much more persuadable than I had expected. Harriet's doing, of course. Ah, hello, Nymphadora!"

Harriet looked around and saw that Mrs. Weasley was not alone, despite the lateness of the hour. A young witch with a pale, heart-shaped face and mousy brown hair was sitting at the table clutching a large mug between her hands.

"Hello, Professor," she said. "Wotcher, Harriet."

"Hi, Tonks."

Harriet thought she looked drawn, even ill, and there was something forced in her smile. Certainly her appearance was less colorful than usual without her customary shade of bubble-gum-pink hair.

"I'd better be off," she said quickly, standing up and pulling her cloak around her shoulders. "Thanks for the tea and sympathy, Molly."

"Please don't leave on my account," said Dumbledore courteously, "I cannot stay, I have urgent matters to discuss with Rufus Scrimgeour."

"No, no, I need to get going," said Tonks, not meeting Dumbledore's eyes. "Night. . . "

"Dear, why not come to dinner at the weekend, Remus and Mad-Eye are coming. . . ?"

"No, really, Molly. . . thanks anyway. . . Goodnight, every-one. "

Tonks hurried past Dumbledore and Harriet into the yard; a few paces beyond the doorstep, she turned on the spot and vanished into thin air. Harriet noticed that Mrs. Weasley looked troubled.

"Well, I shall see you at Hogwarts, Harriet," said Dumbledore. "Take care of yourself. Molly, your servant."

He made Mrs. Weasley a bow and followed Tonks, vanishing at precisely the same spot. Mrs. Weasley closed the door on the empty yard and then steered Harriet by the shoulders into the full glow of the lantern on the table to examine her appearance.

"You're like Ron," she sighed, looking her up and down. "Both of you look as though you've had Stretching jinxes put on you. I swear Ron's grown four inches since I last bought him school robes. Are you hungry, Harriet?"

"Yeah, I am," said Harriet, suddenly realizing just how hungry she was.

"Sit down, dear, I'll knock something up."

As Harriet sat down, a furry ginger cat with a squashed face lumped onto her knees and settled there, purring.

"So Neville and Hermione're here?" she asked happily as she tickled Crookshanks behind the ears.

"Oh yes, they arrived the day before yesterday," said Mrs. Weasley, rapping a large iron pot with her wand. It bounced onto the stove with a loud clang and began to bubble at once. "Everyone's in bed, of course, we didn't expect you for hours. Here you are. . . "

She tapped the pot again; it rose into the air, flew toward Harriet, and tipped over; Mrs. Weasley slid a bowl nearly beneath it just in time to catch the stream of thick, steaming onion soup.

"Bread, dear?"

"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley."

She waved her wand over her shoulder; a loaf of bread and a knife soared gracefully onto the table; as the loaf sliced itself and the soup pot dropped back onto the stove, Mrs. Weasley sat down opposite her.

"So you persuaded Horace Slughorn to take the job?"

Harriet nodded, her mouth so full of hot soup that she could not speak.

"He taught Arthur and me," said Mrs. Weasley. "He was at Hogwarts for ages, started around the same time as Dumbledore, I think. Did you like him?"

Her mouth now full of bread, Harriet shrugged and gave a non-committal jerk of the head.

"I know what you mean," said Mrs. Weasley, nodding wisely. "Of course he can be charming when he wants to be, but Arthur's never liked him much. The Ministry's littered with Slughorn's old favorites, he was always good at giving leg ups, but he never had much time for Arthur. . . didn't seem to think he was enough of a highflier. Well, that just shows you, even Slughorn makes mistakes. I don't know whether Ron's told you in any of his letters. . . it's only just happened. . . but Arthur's been promoted!"

It could not have been clearer that Mrs. Weasley had been bursting to say this.

Harriet swallowed a large amount of very hot soup and thought she could feel her throat blistering.

"That's great!" she gasped.

"You are sweet," beamed Mrs. Weasley, possibly taking her watering eyes for emotion at the news. "Yes, Rufus Scrimgeour has set up several new offices in response to the present situation, and Arthur's heading the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects. It's a big job, he's got ten people reporting to him now!"

"What exactly-?"

"Well, you see, in all the panic about You-Know-Who, odd things have been cropping up for sale everywhere, things that are supposed to guard against You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters. You can imagine the kind of thing. . . so-called protective potions that are really gravy with a bit of Bubotuber pus added, or instructions for defensive jinxes that actually make your ears fall off. . . Well, in the main the perpetrators are just people like Mundungus Hotelier, who've never done an honest day's work in their lives and are taking advantage of how frightened everybody is, but every now and then something really nasty turns up. The other day Arthur confiscated a box of cursed Sneakoscopes that were almost certainly planted by a Death Eater. So you see, it's a very important job, and I tell him it's just silly to miss dealing with spark plugs and toasters and all the rest of that Muggle rubbish." Mrs. Weasley ended her speech with a stern look, as if it had been Harriet suggesting that it was natural to miss spark-plugs.

"Is Mr. Weasley still at work?" Harriet asked.

"Yes, he is. As a matter of fact, he's a tiny bit late. . . He said he'd be back around midnight. . . "

She turned to look at a large clock that was perched awkwardly on top of a pile of sheets in the washing basket at the end of the table. Harriet recognized it at once: it had nine hands, each inscribed with the name of a family member, and usually hung on the Weasleys' sitting room wall, though its current position suggested that Mrs. Weasley had taken to carrying it around the house with her. Every single one of its nine hands was now pointing at mortal peril.

"It's been like that for a while now," said Mrs. Weasley, in an unconvincingly casual voice, "ever since You-Know-Who came back into the open. I suppose everybody's in mortal danger now. . . I don't think it can be just our family. . . but I don't know anyone else who's got a clock like this, so I can't check. Oh!"

With a sudden exclamation she pointed at the clock's face. Mr. Weasley's hand had switched to traveling.

"He's coming!"

And sure enough, a moment later there was a knock on the back door. Mrs. Weasley jumped up and hurried to it; with one hand on the doorknob and her face pressed against the wood she called softly, "Arthur, is that you?"

"Yes," came Mr. Weasley's weary voice. "But I would say that even if I were a Death Eater, dear. Ask the question!"

"Oh, honestly. . . "

"Molly!"

"All right, all right. . . What is your dearest ambition?"

"To find out how airplanes stay up."

Mrs. Weasley nodded and turned the doorknob, but apparently Mr. Weasley was holding tight to it on the other side, because the door remained firmly shut.

"Molly! I've got to ask you your question first!"

"Arthur, really, this is just silly. . ."

"What do you like me to call you when we're alone together?"

Even by the dim light of the lantern Harriet could tell that Mrs. Weasley had turned bright red; she herself felt suddenly warm around the ears and neck, and hastily gulped soup, clattering her spoon as loudly as she could against the bowl.

"Mollywobbles," whispered a mortified Mrs. Weasley into the crack at the edge of the door.

"Correct," said Mr. Weasley. "Now you can let me in."

Mrs. Weasley opened the door to reveal her husband, a thin, balding, red-haired wizard wearing horn-rimmed spectacles and a long and dusty traveling cloak.

"I still don't see why we have to go through that every time you come home," said Mrs. Weasley, still pink in the face as she helped her husband out of his cloak. "I mean, a Death Eater might have forced the answer out of you before impersonating you!"

"I know, dear, but it's Ministry procedure, and I have to set an example. Something smells good. . . onion soup?"

Mr. Weasley turned hopefully in the direction of the table.

"Harriet! We didn't expect you until morning!"

They shook hands, and Mr. Weasley dropped into the chair beside Harriet as Mrs. Weasley set a bowl of soup in front of him too.

"Thanks, Molly. It's been a tough night. Some idiot's started selling Metamorph-Medals. Just sling them around your neck and you'll be able to change your appearance at will. A hundred thousand disguises, all for ten Galleons!"

"And what really happens when you put them on?"

"Mostly you just turn a fairly unpleasant orange color, but a couple of people have also sprouted tentacle like warts all over their bodies. As if St. Mungo's didn't have enough to do already!"

"It sounds like the sort of thing Fred and George would find funny," said Mrs. Weasley hesitantly. "Are you sure. . . ?"

"Of course I am!" said Mr. Weasley. "The boys wouldn't do anything like that now, not when people are desperate for protection!"

"So is that why you're late, Metamorph-Medals?"

"No, we got wind of a nasty backfiring jinx down in Elephant and Castle, but luckily the Magical Law Enforcement Squad had sorted it out by the time we got there. . . "

Harriet stifled a yawn behind her hand.

"Bed," said an undeceived Mrs. Weasley at once. "I've got Fred and George's room all ready for you, you'll have it to yourself. "

"Why, where are they?"

"Oh, they're in Diagon Alley, sleeping in the little flat over their joke shop as they're so busy," said Mrs. Weasley. "I must say, I didn't approve at first, but they do seem to have a bit of a flair for business! Come on, dear, your trunks already up there."

"Night, Mr. Weasley," said Harriet, pushing back her chair. Crookshanks leapt lightly from her lap and slunk out of the room.

"G'night, Harriet," said Mr. Weasley.

Harriet saw Mrs. Weasley glance at the clock in the washing basket as they left the kitchen. All the hands were once again at mortal peril.

Fred and George's bedroom was on the second floor. Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at a lamp on the bedside table and it ignited at once, bathing the room in a pleasant golden glow. Though a large vase of flowers had been placed on a desk in front of the small window, their perfume could not disguise the lingering smell of what Harriet thought was gunpowder. A considerable amount of floor space was devoted to a vast number of unmarked, sealed cardboard boxes, amongst which stood Harriet's school trunk. The room looked as though it was being used as a temporary warehouse.

Hedwig hooted happily at Harriet from her perch on top of a large wardrobe, then took off through the window; Harriet knew she had been waiting to see her before going hunting. Harriet bade Mrs. Weasley good night, put on pajamas, and got into one of the beds. There was something hard inside the pillowcase. She groped inside it and pulled out a sticky purple-and-orange sweet, which he recognized as a Puking Pastille. Smiling to himself, she rolled over and was instantly asleep.

Seconds later, or so it seemed to Harriet, she was awakened by what sounded like cannon fire as the door burst open. Sitting bolt upright, she heard the rasp of the curtains being pulled back: The dazzling sunlight seemed to poke her hard in both eyes. Shielding them with one hand, she groped hopelessly for her glasses with the other.

"Wuzzgoinon?"

"We didn't know you were here already!" said a loud and excited voice, and he received a sharp blow to the top of the head.

"Ron, don't hit her!" said a girl's voice reproachfully.

"Yeah, don't hurt my girlfriend!" another boy said.

Harriet's hand found her glasses and she shoved them on, though the light was so bright she could hardly see anyway. A long, looming shadow quivered in front of him for a moment; she blinked and Ron Weasley came into focus, grinning down at her.

"All right?"

"Never been better," said Harriet, rubbing the top of her head and slumping back onto her pillows. "You?"

"Not bad," said Ron, pulling over a cardboard box and sitting on it. "When did you get here? Mum's only just told us!"

"About one o'clock this morning."

"Were the Muggles alright? Did they treat you okay?" Neville asked sitting next to her.

"Same as usual," said Harriet, as Hermione perched herself on the edge of her bed, "they didn't talk to me much, but I like it better that way. How're you, Neville, Hermione?"

"Good and happy to see you." Neville said then gave her a kiss.

"Oh, I'm fine," said Hermione, who was scrutinizing Harriet as though she was sickening for something. She thought she knew what was behind this, and as she had no wish to discuss Sirius's death or any other miserable subject at the moment, she said, "What's the time? Have I missed breakfast?"

"Don't worry about that, Mum's bringing you up a tray; she reckons you look underfed," said Ron, rolling his eyes. "So, what's been going on?"

"Nothing much, I've just been stuck at my aunt and uncle's, haven't I?"

"Come off it!" said Neville. "You've been off with Dumbledore!"

"It wasn't that exciting. He just wanted me to help him persuade this old teacher to come out of retirement. His name's Horace Slughorn."

"Oh," said Ron, looking disappointed. "We thought-"

Hermione flashed a warning look at Ron so did Neville, and Ron changed tack at top speed.

"- we thought it'd be something like that."

"You did?" said Harriet, amused.

"Yeah. . . yeah, now Umbridge has left, obviously we need a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, don't we? So, er, what's he like?"

"He looks a bit like a walrus, and he used to be Head of Slytherin," said Harriet. "Something wrong, Hermione?"

She was watching her as though expecting strange symptoms to manifest themselves at any moment. She rearranged her features hastily in an unconvincing smile.

"No, of course not! So, um, did Slughorn seem like he'll be a good teacher?"

"Dunno," said Harriet. "He can't be worse than Umbridge, can he?"

"I know someone who's worse than Umbridge," said a voice from the doorway. Ron's younger sister slouched into the room, looking irritable. "Hi, Harriet."

"What's up with you?" Ron asked.

"It's her," said Ginny, plonking herself down on Harriet's bed. "She's driving me mad."

"What's she done now?" asked Neville sympathetically.

"It's the way she talks to me. . . you'd think I was about three!"

"I know," said Hermione, dropping her voice. "She's so full of herself."

Harriet was astonished to hear Hermione talking about Mrs. Weasley like this and could not blame Ron for saying angrily, "Can't you two lay off her for five seconds?"

"Oh, that's right, defend her," snapped Ginny. "We all know you can't get enough of her."

This seemed an odd comment to make about Ron's mother. Starting to feel that she was missing something, Harriet said, "Who are you. . . ?"

But her question was answered before she could finish it. The bedroom door flew open again, and Harriet instinctively yanked the bed covers up to her chin so hard that Neville, Hermione and Ginny slid off the bed onto the floor.

A young woman was standing in the doorway, a woman of such breathtaking beauty that the room seemed to have become strangely airless. She was tall and willowy with long blonde hair and appeared to emanate a faint, silvery glow. To complete this vision of perfection, she was carrying a heavily laden breakfast tray.

"'Arriet," she said in a throaty voice. "Eet 'as been too long!"

As she swept over the threshold toward her, Mrs. Weasley was revealed, bobbing along in her wake, looking rather cross.

"There was no need to bring up the tray, I was just about to do it myself!"

"Eet was no trouble," said Fleur Delacour, setting the tray across Harriet's knees and then swooping to kiss her on each cheek: she felt the places where her mouth had touched her burn. "I 'ave been longing to see 'er. You remember my seester, Gabrielle? She never stops talking about 'Arriet Potter. She will be delighted to see you again."

"Oh. . . is she here too?" Harriet croaked getting closer to Neville.

"No, no, silly girl," said Fleur with a tinkling laugh, "I mean next summer, when we. . . but do you not know?"

Her great blue eyes widened and she looked reproachfully at Mrs. Weasley, who said, "We hadn't got around to telling her yet."

Fleur turned back to Harriet, swinging her silvery sheet of hair so that it whipped Mrs. Weasley across the face.

"Bill and I are going to be married!"

"Oh," said Harriet blankly. She could not help noticing how Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, and Ginny were all determinedly avoiding one another's gaze. "Wow. Er. . . congratulations!"

She swooped down upon her and kissed her again.

"Bill is very busy at ze moment, working very 'ard, and I only work part-time at Gringotts for my Eenglish, so he brought me 'ere for a few days to get to know 'is family properly. I was so pleased to 'ear you would be coming. . . zere isn't much to do 'ere, unless you like cooking and chickens! Well. . . enjoy your breakfast, 'Arriet!"

With these words she turned gracefully and seemed to float out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Mrs. Weasley made a noise that sounded like, "tchah!"

"Mum hates her," said Ginny quietly.

"I do not hate her!" said Mrs. Weasley in a cross whisper. "I just think they've hurried into this engagement, that's all!"

"They've known each other a year," said Ron, who looked oddly groggy and was staring at the closed door.

"Well, that's not very long! I know why it's happened, of course. It's all this uncertainty with You-Know-Who coming back, people think they might be dead tomorrow, so they're rushing all sorts of decisions they'd normally take time over. It was the same last time he was powerful, people eloping left, right, and center. . ."

"Including you and Dad," said Ginny slyly.

"Yes, well, your father and I were made for each other, what was the point in waiting?" said Mrs. Weasley. "Whereas Bill and Fleur. . . well. . . what have they really got in common? He's a hardworking, down-to-earth sort of person, whereas she's. . ."

"A cow," said Ginny, nodding. "But Bill's not that down-to-earth. He's a Curse-Breaker, isn't he, he likes a bit of adventure, a bit of glamour. . . I expect that's why he's gone for Phlegm."

"Stop calling her that, Ginny," said Mrs. Weasley sharply, as Harriet and Hermione laughed. "Well, I'd better get on. . . Eat your eggs while they're warm, Harriet."

Looking careworn, she left the room. Ron still seemed slightly punch-drunk; he was shaking his head experimentally like a dog trying to rid its ears of water.

"Don't you get used to her if she's staying in the same house?" Harriet asked.

"Well, you do," said Ron, "but if she jumps out at you unexpectedly, like then. . . "

"It's pathetic," said Hermione furiously, striding away from Ron as far as she could go and turning to face him with her arms folded once she had reached the wall.

"You don't really want her around forever?" Ginny asked Ron incredulously. When he merely shrugged, she said, "Well, Mum's going to put a stop to it if she can, I bet you anything."

"How's she going to manage that?" asked Harriet.

"She keeps trying to get Tonks round for dinner. I think she's hoping Bill will fall for Tonks instead. I hope he does, I'd much rather have her in the family."

"Yeah, that'll work," said Ron sarcastically. "Listen, no bloke in his right mind's going to fancy Tonks when Fleur's around. I mean, Tonks is okay-looking when she isn't doing stupid things to her hair and her nose, but. . . "

"She's a damn sight nicer than Phlegm," said Ginny.

"And she's more intelligent, she's an Auror!" said Hermione from the corner.

"Fleur's not stupid, she was good enough to enter the Triwizard Tournament," said Harriet.

"Not you as well!" said Hermione bitterly.

"I suppose you like the way Phlegm says ''Arriet,' do you?" asked Ginny scornfully.

"No," said Harriet, wishing she hadn't spoken, "I was just saying, Phlegm. . . I mean, Fleur. . . "

"I'd much rather have Tonks in the family," said Ginny. "At least she's a laugh."

"She hasn't been much of a laugh lately," said Ron. "Every time I've seen her she's looked more like Moaning Myrtle. "

"That's not fair," snapped Hermione. "She still hasn't got over what happened. . . you know. . . I mean, he was her cousin!"

Harriet's heart sank. They had arrived at Sirius. She picked up a fork and began shoveling scrambled eggs into her mouth, hoping to deflect any invitation to join in this part of the conversation.

"Tonks and Sirius barely knew each other!" said Ron. "Sirius was in Azkaban half her life and before that their families never met-"

"That's not the point," said Hermione. "She thinks it was her limit he died!"

"How does she work that one out?" asked Harriet, in spite of herself.

"Well, she was fighting Bellatrix Lestrange, wasn't she? I think she feels that if only she had finished her off, Bellatrix couldn't have killed Sirius."

"That's stupid," said Ron.

"It's survivor's guilt," said Neville. "I know Lupin's tried to talk her round, but she's still really down. She's actually having trouble with her Metamorphosing!"

"With her. . . ?"

"She can't change her appearance like she used to," explained Hermione. "I think her powers must have been affected by shock, or something."

"I didn't know that could happen," said Harriet.

"Nor did I," said Hermione, "but I suppose if you're really depressed. . . "

The door opened again and Mrs. Weasley popped her head in. "Ginny," she whispered, "come downstairs and help me with the lunch."

"I'm talking to this lot!" said Ginny, outraged.

"Now!" said Mrs. Weasley, and withdrew.

"She only wants me there so she doesn't have to be alone with Phlegm!" said Ginny crossly.

She swung her long red hair around in a very good imitation of Fleur and pranced across the room with her arms held aloft like a ballerina.

"You lot had better come down quickly too," she said as she left.

Harriet took advantage of the temporary silence to eat more breakfast. Hermione was peering into Fred and George's boxes, though every now and then she cast sideways looks at Harriet. Ron, who was now helping himself to Harriet's toast, was still gazing dreamily at the door.

"What's this?" Hermione asked eventually, holding up what looked like a small telescope.

"Dunno," said Ron, "but if Fred and George left it here, it's probably not ready for the joke shop yet, so be careful."

"Your mum said the shop's going well," said Harriet. "Said Fred and George have got a real flair for business."

"That's an understatement," said Ron. "They're raking in the Galleons! I can't wait to see the place, we haven't been to Diagon Alley yet, because Mum says Dad's got to be there for extra security and he's been really busy at work, but it sounds excellent."

"And what about Percy?" asked Harriet; the third-eldest Weasley brother had fallen out with the rest of the family. "Is he talking to your mum and dad again?"

"Nope," said Ron.

"But he knows your dad was right all along now about Voldemort being back. . ."

"Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right," said Neville. "I heard him telling your mum, Ron."

"Sounds like the sort of mental thing Dumbledore would say," said Ron.

"He's going to be giving me private lessons this year," said Harriet conversationally.

Ron choked on his bit of toast, and Hermione gasped while Neville sat there in shock.

"You kept that quiet!" said Ron.

"I only just remembered," said Harriet honestly. "He told me last night in your broom shed."

"Blimey. . . private lessons with Dumbledore!" said Ron, looking impressed. "I wonder why he's. . . ?"

His voice tailed away. Harriet saw him, Neville and Hermione exchange looks. Harriet laid down her knife and fork, her heart beating rather fast considering that all she was doing was sitting in bed. Dumbledore had said to do it. . . Why not now? She fixed her eyes on her fork, which was gleaming in the sunlight streaming into her lap, and said, "I don't know exactly why he's going to be giving me lessons, but I think it must be because of the prophecy. "

Neither Neville, Ron nor Hermione spoke. Harriet had the impression that they all had frozen. She continued, still speaking to her fork, "You know, the one they were trying to steal at the Ministry."

"Nobody knows what it said, though," said Hermione quickly. "It got smashed."

"Although the Prophet says. . . " began Ron, but Hermione said, "Shh!"

While Neville glared at him.

"The Prophet's got it right," said Harriet, looking up at them all with a great effort: Hermione seemed frightened, Neville worried and Ron amazed. "That glass ball that smashed wasn't the only record of the prophecy. I heard the whole thing in Dumbledore's office, he was the one the prophecy was made to, so he could tell me. From what it said," Harriet took a deep breath, "it looks like I'm the one who's got to finish off Voldemort. . . At least, it said neither of us could live while the other survives. But if I can't do it there's one other person that can."

"Who?" Neville asked.

She looked at him and sighed.

"You."

The four of them gazed at one another in silence for a moment. Then there was a loud bang and Hermione vanished behind a puff of black smoke.

"Hermione!" shouted Harriet, Neville and Ron; the breakfast tray slid to the floor with a crash.

Hermione emerged, coughing, out of the smoke, clutching the telescope and sporting a brilliantly purple black eye.

"I squeezed it and it. . . it punched me!" she gasped.

And sure enough, they now saw a tiny fist on a long spring protruding from the end of the telescope.

"Don't worry," said Ron, who was plainly trying not to laugh, "Mum'll fix that, she's good at healing minor injuries. . . "

"Oh well, never mind that now!" said Hermione hastily. "Harriet, oh, Harriet. . . "

She sat down on the edge of her bed again.

"We wondered, after we got back from the Ministry. . . Obviously, we didn't want to say anything to you, but from what Lucius Malfoy said about the prophecy, how it was about you and Voldemort, well, we thought it might be something like this. . . Oh, Harriet. . . " She stared at him, then whispered, "Are you scared?"

"Not as much as I was," said Harriet. "When I first heard it, I was. . . but now, it seems as though I always knew I'd have to face him in the end. . . "

"When we heard Dumbledore was collecting you in person, we thought he might be telling you something or showing you something to do with the prophecy," said Ron eagerly. "And we were kind of right, weren't we? He wouldn't be giving you lessons if he thought you were a goner, wouldn't waste his time. . . he must think you've got a chance!"

"That's true," said Hermione. "I wonder what he'll teach you, Harriet? Really advanced defensive magic, probably. . . powerful counter-curses. . . anti-jinxes. . . "

Harriet did not really listen. A warmth was spreading through her that had nothing to do with the sunlight; a tight obstruction in her chest seemed to be dissolving. She knew that Neville, Ron and Hermione were more shocked than they were letting on, but the mere fact that they were still there on either side of her, speaking bracing words of comfort, not shrinking from her as though she were contaminated or dangerous, was worth more than she could ever tell them.

". . . and evasive enchantments generally," concluded Hermione. "Well, at least you know one lesson you'll be having this year, that's one more than Ron, Neville and me. I wonder when our O. W. L. results will come?"

"Can't be long now, it's been a month," said Neville.

"Hang on," said Harriet, as another part of last night's conversation came back to him. "I think Dumbledore said our O.W.L. results would be arriving today!"

"Today?" shrieked Hermione. "Today? But why didn't you. . . oh my God. . . you should have said. . . "

She leap to her feet.

"I'm going to see whether any owls have come. . ."

But when Harriet arrived downstairs ten minutes later, fully dressed and carrying her empty breakfast tray, it was to find Hermione sitting at the kitchen table in great agitation, while Mrs. Weasley tried to lessen her resemblance to half a panda.

"It just won't budge," Mrs. Weasley was saying anxiously, standing over Hermione with her wand in her hand and a copy of The Healer's Helpmate open at 'Bruises, Cuts, and Abrasions'. "This has always worked before, I just can't understand it."

"It'll be Fred and George's idea of a funny joke, making sure it can't come off," said Ginny.

"But it's got to come off!" squeaked Hermione. "I can't go around looking like this forever!"

"You won't, dear, we'll find an antidote, don't worry," said Mrs. Weasley soothingly.

"Bill told me 'ow Fred and George are very amusing!" said Fleur, smiling serenely.

"Yes, I can hardly breathe for laughing," snapped Hermione.

She jumped up and started walking round and round the kitchen, twisting her fingers together.

"Mrs. Weasley, you're quite, quite sure no owls have arrived this morning?"

"Yes, dear, I'd have noticed," said Mrs. Weasley patiently. "But it's barely nine, there's still plenty of time. . . "

"I know I messed up Ancient Runes," muttered Hermione feverishly, "I definitely made at least one serious mistranslation. And the Defense Against the Dark Arts practical was no good at all. I thought Transfiguration went all right at the time, but looking back-"

"Hermione, will you shut up, you're not the only one who's nervous!" barked Ron. "And when you've got your eleven 'Outstanding O. W. L. s. . . '"

"Don't, don't, don't!" said Hermione, flapping her hands hysterically. "I know I've failed everything!"

"What happens if we fail?" Neville asked the room at large, but it was again Hermione who answered.

"We discuss our options with our Head of House, I asked Professor McGonagall at the end of last term."

Harriet's stomach squirmed. She wished she had eaten less breakfast.

"At Beauxbatons," said Fleur complacently, "we 'ad a different way of doing things. I think eet was better. We sat our examinations after six years of study, not five, and then. . . "

Fleur's words were drowned in a scream. Hermione was pointing through the kitchen window. Three black specks were clearly visible in the sky, growing larger all the time.

"They're definitely owls," said Ron hoarsely, jumping up to join Hermione at the window.

"And there are four of them," said Neville, hastening to his other side.

"One for each of us," said Hermione in a terrified whisper. "Oh no. . . oh no. . . oh no. . . "

She gripped both Harriet, and Ron tightly around the elbows.

The owls were flying directly at the Burrow, four handsome tawnies, each of which, it became clear as they flew lower over the path leading up to the house, was carrying a large square envelope.

"Oh no!" squealed Hermione.

Mrs. Weasley squeezed past them and opened the kitchen window. One, two, three, four the owls soared through it and landed on the table in a neat line. All four of them lifted their right legs.

Harriet moved forward. The letter addressed to her was tied to the leg of the owl in the middle. She untied it with fumbling fingers. To her left, Ron was trying to detach his own results; to her right, Hermione's hands were shaking so much she was making her whole owl tremble. And next to her Neville was having trouble grabbing it.

Nobody in the kitchen spoke. At last, Harriet managed to detach the envelope. She slit it open quickly and unfolded the parchment inside.

Ordinary Wizarding Level Results

Pass Grades:

Outstanding (O)

Exceeds Expectations (E)

Acceptable (A)

Fail Grades:

Poor (P)

Dreadful (D)

Troll (T)

Harriet Lilly Potter has achieved:

Astronomy A

Care of Magical Creatures E

Charms E

Defense Against the Dark Arts O

Divination P

Herbology O

History of Magic D

Potions E

Transfiguration E

Harriet read the parchment through several times, her breathing becoming easier with each reading. It was all right: she had always known that she would fail Divination, and she had had no chance of passing History of Magic, given that she had collapsed halfway through the examination, but she had passed everything else! She ran her finger down the grades. . . she had passed well in Transfiguration and Herbology, (thanks to Neville with herbology) she had even exceeded expectations at Potions! And best of all, she had achieved "Outstanding" at Defense Against the Dark Arts!

She looked around. Hermione had her back to her and her head bent, but Ron was looking delighted. Same with Neville.

"Only failed Divination and History of Magic, and who cares about them?" Ron said happily to Harriet. "Here. . . swap. . . "

Harriet glanced down Ron's grades: There were no "Outstandings" there. . .

"Knew you'd be top at Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Ron, punching Harriet on the shoulder. "We've done all right, haven't we?"

"Well done!" said Mrs. Weasley proudly, ruffling Ron's hair. "Seven O. W. L. s, that's more than Fred and George got together!"

"Hermione?" said Ginny tentatively, for Hermione still hadn't turned around. "How did you do?"

"I-not bad," said Hermione in a small voice.

"Oh, come off it," said Ron, striding over to her and whipping her results out of her hand. "Yep. . . ten 'Outstandings' and one 'Exceeds Expectations' at Defense Against the Dark Arts. " He looked down at her, half-amused, half-exasperated. "You're actually disappointed, aren't you?"

Hermione shook her head, but Harriet laughed.

"I got the same thing as Harriet except Defense Against the Dark Arts. I got an Exceedingly Exceptional." Neville said.

"Well, we're N. E. W. T. students now!" grinned Ron. "Mum, are there any more sausages?"

Harriet looked back down at her results. They were as good as she could have hoped for. She felt just one tiny twinge of regret. . . This was the end of her ambition to become an Auror. She had not secured the required Potions grade. She had known all along that she wouldn't, but she still felt a sinking in her stomach as she looked again at that small black E.

It was odd, really, seeing that it had been a Death Eater in disguise who had first told Harriet she would make a good Auror, but somehow the idea had taken hold of her, and she couldn't really think of anything else she would like to be. Moreover, it had seemed the right destiny for her since she had heard the prophecy a few weeks ago. . . Neither can live while the other survives. . . Wouldn't she be living up to the prophecy, and giving herself the best chance of survival, if she joined those highly trained wizards whose job it was to find and kill Voldemort?


	4. Chapter 4

Before they knew it they were getting everything they needed for school. Right now they were at Fred and George's new store.

WEASLEY'S WIZARD WHEEZES

There was something in the hand of a boy being pulled by his mother through the throng packed sardine-tight in the store.

It's utter madness: Ever-Bashing Boomerangs whip through the air, Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start No-Heat fireworks spit sparks, and Nose-Biting Teacups bare tiny porcelain teeth.

"Step up! Step up!" Fred and George said together.

"We've got Fainting Fancy..." George said.

"Nosebleed Nougats..." Fred said.

"And just in time for school..." George said.

"Puking Pastilles!" Fred said.

A boy stoped chewing, turns pale green - literally.

"Into the cauldron, handsome." Fred and George said together.

Together, with the tips of their toes, Fred and George launch a sloshing cauldron down the counter, drop down on either side of Harriet and Neville, begin to steer them through the store.

"What'd you think, Neville, Harriet?" Fred said.

"Amazing." Harriet said.

"Yeah, it's awesome!" Neville said.

"Pocket that and you'll pay in more than Galleons, my friend." George said to a browsing boy.

"We've got eyes in the back of our heads." they said together.

The boy, working a screaming yo-yo, blanches as Fred and George turn, reveal they do in fact have eyes in the back of their heads - phony, but unnerving. As the eyes wink, the tiny boy bolts.

"Bloody urchins." George said.

Neville's s eyes a display of orange and black lumps.

"Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder?" he said.

"A real money spinner that." George said.

"Handy if you need to make a quick escape." Fred said.

"Hello, ladies!" they said together.

George dropped one of the lumps in Neville's hand, turned to Ginny and Hermione, who peruse a display of "Wonder Witch Love Potions."

"Yes, they do really work." George said.

"Then again, the way we hear it, sis, you're doing just fine on your own." Fred said.

"Meaning?" Ginny said.

"Are you not currently dating Dean Thomas?" Fred said.

"None of your business." she said smiling.

"These are adorable. Inside a cage, small round balls of fluff roll about, squeak." Hermione said.

"Aren't they now. Pygmy Puffs. Can't breed them fast enough." George said.

Just then a huge boy passes behind Hermione and, with his eyes, takes the full measure of her. Noticing, she turns, receives a faint smile as he moves on.

"How much for this?" Ron asked.

A tiny wooden man ascends a tiny gallows and... drops.

George rides a rolling ladder into frame, drops next to Fred.

"Five Galleons." they said together.

"How much for me?" he asked.

"Five Galleons." they said again.

"But I'm your brother!"

"Ten Galleons."

"C'mon. Let's go." Ron said while he looked at Harriet, Neville and Hermione.

The quartet head for the door, passing Lavender Brown, who smiles flirtatiously at an oblivious Ron.

"Hi, Ron. Hi." she said waving.

"Hi." he said.

The sun fades over an Iron Archway- Welcome to Diagon Alley! - as Harriet, Neville, Ron and Hermione pass beneath. All around them, shops sit silent, windows boarded-up or shattered. People scurry by, avoiding the scary faces of the witches and wizards who peer out from the security posters plastered to every lamp post.

Bellatrix is there, and Greyback, and Lucius Malfoy.

"How is it Fred and George are doing it? Half the alley's closed down." Hermione asked.

"Fred reckons people need a laugh these days." Ron said.

"Reckon he's right..."

Harriet eyes the poster of Bellatrix, her mocking half- smile.

While she did that she saw Neville looking angry. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it getting him to calm down.

"Oh no. Look." Hermione said.

Harriet, Neville and Ron follow her gaze to the wreck that is Ollivander's Wand Shop.

"But everyone got their wands from Ollivander. Young. Old..." Neville started.

"Good. Bad. Speaking of which..." Harriet continued.

Across the avenue, Draco Malfoy and Narcissa pause, glance around, then slip quickly down an alley.

"Is it just me? Or do Malfoy and mummy look like two people who don't want to be followed?" Ron said.

The quartet trail Malfoy and Narcissa, who navigate these dark streets with ease.

Hermione, lagging a bit, glances up at the darkening sky. When she looks back, she sees Ron, Neville and Harriet far ahead. They turn a shadowy corner, vanish.

Harriet, Neville and Ron duck inside a shop front. At the end of the alley, a single shop glimmers dully: Borgin & Burkes. Narcissa and Malfoy enter, greet a stooped man. He pointed and Malfoy walked to a lacquered cabinet, played his fingers over its glassy surface.

Narcissa speaks and Malfoy turned and found Borgin holding the curtain to the back room aside. Malfoy hesitated, then followed his mother through.

"What're they playing at?" Ron said.

"Dunno. Let's get closer." Harriet said.

"Hey. Where's Hermione?" Ron asked.

They couldn't find her so Harriet, Neville and Ron ran down one passage then another then stopped.

"Harriet, where is she?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. I'm turning around." she said.

Then they bumped into Hermione and she was in Ron's arms before she could say anything.

"Ron. Bloody hell." Hermione said.

"Sorry." he said.

Just then, a cauldron exploded with light. Instantly, the group, including Malfoy, disperses.

"What just happened?" Neville asked.

"I don't know." Hermione said.


	5. Chapter 5

A few days later they were on the train and talking.

"He has to be one of them." Harriet said.

"Stop it Harriet, I know where you're going with this." Hermione said.

"Hermione, his father is a Death Eater it only makes sense. Besides we saw him getting something done." she said.

"I know his dad is a Death Eater but that doesn't mean he is." Hermione said.

"I need some air." Harriet said.

Then she grabbed the invisibility cloak and left. Neville looked at her wondering what she was doing while she left.

When Harriet got to the room Malfoy's in she went up and laid down.

"What was that?" Malfoy asked while the lights started to go off.

"It's just the light. Sit down Draco, we'll be at Hogwarts soon." someone said.

"Hogwarts. What a pathetic excuse for a school. I think I pitched myself off the astronomy tab I thought I had to continue for another 2 years." Malfoy said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"Let's just say I don't think I see me wasting my time in Charms class next year."

Then Blaise snickered a little.

"Amused, Blaise? Let's see just who's laughing in the end." he said.

When they got to Hogwarts he staying on the table and looked at the other three people he was with.

"You two go on. Wanna check something." he said.

When they all left he shut the window and made it so no one could see.

"Didn't your mummy ever tell you it's rude to ease drop Potter?"

Then he turned around.

_"Petrificus Totalus!"_

He took off the cloak.

"Oh yeah, she was dead before you could wipe the drool off your chin."

Then he kicked her.

"That's for my father." he said.

"Enjoy your ride back to London!"

Then he put the cloak back on her and left.

While Harriet laid there Luna came and found her.

_"Aneta!"_ she said.

Then the cloak was off and she was able to move again.

"Hello Harriet." she said.

"Luna." she said and stood up. "How'd you know I was here?"

"Wrapspurts, your head's full of them." she said.

When they got outside they started to head to school.

"Sorry you had to miss the carriages." Harriet said.

"That's alright. It's like being with a friend." she said.

"Oh I am your friend Luna."

"That's Nice."

"Oh about time! Names?" Flitwick asked.

"Professor you've known me for five years!" Harriet said

"No excuses Potter." he said.

"Luna Lovegood." Luna said.

Meanwhile in the great hall,

"Don't worry, she'll be here in a minute." Ron said while he ate.

"Will you stop eating! Your best friend is missing!" Hermione said while she hit him with her book.

"And my girlfriend!" Neville said.

"Oi! Turn around ya lunatics!" he said.

They saw Harriet with a tissue on her nose bleeding.

"She's covered in blood again. Why is it she's always covered in blood?" Ginny asked.

"Where have you been?" Hermione asked.

"Look at your face!" Neville said.

"Later, what have I missed?" Harriet asked when she sat next to Neville.

"Just then sorting and that's it." Ron said

"Good evening children! Dumbledore said. "Very best of evenings to you all."

"Thanks."

"First off, let me introduce the newest member of our staff. Horace Slughorn. Professor Slughorn, I'm happy to say, has agreed to resume his old post... as Potions Master. Meanwhile, the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts... will be taken by Professor Snape."

Then they looked at Dumbledore and continued to listen.

"As you know, each and every one of you were searched upon your arrival here tonight. And you have the right to know why. Once, there was a young man. Like you, sat in this very hall. Walked this castle's corridors. Slept under it's roof. You see, to all the world, a student like any other. His name: Tom Riddle. Today of course, is known all over the world by another name. Which is why as I stand, looking out upon you all tonight, I'm reminded of a sobering fact. Every day, every hour, this very minute, perhaps... dark forces attempt to penetrate this castle's walls. But in the end, that greatest weapon... is you. Just something to think about."

He looked at everyone and then smiled.

"Now off to bed, pip pip."

"That was cheerful." Ron said.

Then they all headed to bed.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day Harriet, Neville and Ron were standing there laughing at first years a little thinking about their trouble looking for everything.

"History of Magic is upstairs, ladies, not down. Mr. Davis, Mr. Davis, that is the girls' lavatory." McGonagall said.

Then looked and saw Harriet, Neville and Ron

"Potter."

"Oh this can't be good." Harriet said.

"Enjoying ourselves are we?" she asked

"Oh I had a free period Professor." she said

"So I noticed. I would think that you would want to use it with potions. Or do you no longer wish to be an aurar?"

"Well Professor Snape wanted an outstanding." she said.

"So you did Ms. Potter. When Professor Snape was the teacher. As for Professor Slughorn he accepts students with just an Exhceeds Expectations."

"Alright, good. Well I'll go there straight away." Harriet said.

"Good, and Potter, take Mr. Weasley and Mr. Longbottom with you. They look far too entertained."

So they headed to class.

"I don't wanna take potions. There's quidditch trials and I need to practice." Ron said.

When they got there they heard Slughorn talking about a potion.

"Attention to detail in the preparation is the prerequisite of all plan. Harriet my girl. I've been beginning to worry. You brought two others with you, I see." he said.

"Ron Weasley, sir." Ron said. "But I'm dead awful at Potions. A menace, actually so. I'm probably just gonna-."

"Neville Longbottom sir. I'm not that good either." Neville said.

"Nonsense, we'll sort you out. Any friend of Harriet's is a friend of mine. Get your books out." Slughorn said.

"I didn't get the chance to get all my school books and neither has Ron or Neville." Harriet said.

"Not to worry, get what you want from the cupboard. Now as I was saying, I prepared some concoctions this morning. Any ideas what these might be?"

So they headed to grab a book. There were three books. Ron grabbed one first, then Neville and then Harriet. Her book had rips in it.

While they did that Slughorn asked a question.

Then Hermione raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss...?"

"Granger, sir. That one there is veritaserum. It's a truth-telling serum. And that one- It's terribly tricky to make. This is Amortentia. The most powerful love potion in the world. It's rumored to smell differently to each person according to what attracts them."

Then she walked over to it and sniffed it.

"For example, I smell... Freshly mown grass and new parchment and... Spearmint toothpaste."

"Now Amortentia doesn't create actual love. That would be impossible, but it does cause powerful infatuation or obsession. And for that reason, it is probably the most dangerous potion in this room." Slughorn said.

"Sir, you haven't told us what's in that one." someone said.

"Liquid luck." Hermione finished.

"Yes, Miss Granger. Liquid luck. Desperately tricky to make, disastrous should you get it wrong. One sip and you'll find that all of your endeavours succeed. At least until the effects wear off. So this is what I offer each of you today. One tiny vial of liquid luck to the student who in the hour that remains, manages to brew an acceptable Draught of Living Dead. Recipes for which can be found on page 10 of your books. Issue one doubt, however. Only one set of student manage to brew a potion of sufficient quality to claim this prize. Nevertheless, good luck to you all. Let the brewing commence!" he said.

When they got the ingredients they opened their book and started.

Harriet saw on the side saying, 'This Book is belongs to the half blood prince.'

So she opened it and saw different ways to make it.

When she got to the cutting part she saw it say crush it. So she did that and Hermione was shocked.

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked.

"Crush it don't cut it." she said.

"No, the instructions specifically say to cut." she said.

"No really." Harriet said.

While they tried to make it Harriet did as the book said.

When it was Harriet's turn for Slughorn to check it she was shocked.

"Merlin's beard! It's perfect! In fact if we even touched it it would kill us all!" he said.

"Like I promised, one tiny vial of liquid luck. Use it well." he said.

Then everyone started clapping. While they did that Neville smiled.


	7. Chapter 7

A few days later Harriet was on her way to Dumbledore's office.

When she got there she knocked on the door.

"Come in." Dumbledore said.

"Ah Harriet you got my message." he said when she came in.

"Enjoying your new classes?"

"Yes." she said.

"Professor Slughorn is most impressive." he said.

"I think he overestimates my abilities sir." Harriet said.

Then he stood up and headed to the memories.

"You must be wonderful why I summoned you here. The answer is this. These are memories of one person: Voldemort."

She stood there in shock.

"Or as he once was called, Tom Riddle."

Then he picked up a memory and looked at her.

"This vial has most sufficient memory." he started

Harriet waited for him to finish.

"The day I first met him. I'd like you two to see it."

So he poured the pensive into his memory holder and then they went inside.

_He mounted the few steps leading to the front door and knocked once. After a moment or two, the door was opened by a girl wearing an apron._

_"Good afternoon. I have an appointment with a Mrs. Cole."_

_"Oh, alright. Just a moment, MRS. COLE!" she bellowed over her shoulder._

_She turned back to Dumbledore._

_"Dumbledore stepped into a hallway tiled in black and white. The whole place was shabby but very clean. When the front door had closed behind them, a skinny, harassed-looking woman came toward them. She had a sharp-featured face that appeared and was talking over her shoulder to another aproned helper as she walked toward Dumbledore._

_"Good afternoon," said Dumbledore, holding out his hand. "My name is Albus Dumbledore. I sent you a letter requesting an appointment and you very kindly invited me here today."_

_"Oh yes. Well then- you'd better come into my room." she said._

_She led Dumbledore into a small room that seemed part sitting room, part office. It was as shabby as the hallway and the furniture was old and mismatched. She invited him to sit on a rickety chair while she sat behind a cluttered desk._

_"I'm here, as I told you in my letter, to discuss Tom Riddle and arrangements for his future." said Dumbledore._

_"Are you family?" asked Mrs. Cole._

_"No, I am a teacher," he said. "I've come to offer Tom a place at my school."_

_"What school then?"_

_"It's called Hogwarts." said Dumbledore._

_"And why are you interested in Tom?"_

_"We believe he has qualities we're looking for."_

_"You mean he's won a scholarship? How can he have done? He's never been entered for one."_

_"Well, his name has been down for our school since birth-"_

_"Who registered him? His parents?"_

_There was no doubt that Mrs. Cole was an inconveniently sharp woman. Apparently Dumbledore thought so too, he slip his wand out of his pocket, at the same time picking up a piece of perfectly blank paper from Mrs. Cole's desktop._

_"Here," he said waving his wand once as he passed her the piece of paper. "I think this will make everything clear."_

_Mrs. Cole's eyes slid out of focus and back again as she gazed intently at the blank paper for a moment._

_That seems perfectly in order," she said placidly, handing it back._

_Then her eyes fell upon a bottle of gin and two glasses that had certainly not been present a few seconds before._

_"May I offer you a glass of gin?" she said._

_"Thank you very much," said Dumbledore, beaming._

_It soon became clear that Mrs. Cole was no novice when it came to gin drinking. Pouring both of them a generous measure, she drained her own glass in one gulp._

_She smiled at Dumbledore for the first time, and he didn't hesitate to press his advantage._

_"I was wondering whether you could tell me anything of Tom Riddle's history? I think he was born here in the orphanage?"_

_"That's right," said Mrs. Cole, helping herself to more gin._

_"I remember it clear as anything, because I'd just started here myself. New Year's Eve and bitter cold, snowing, nasty night. And this girl, not much older than I was myself at the time, came staggering up the front steps. Well, she wasn't the first. We took her in, and she had the baby within the hour. She was dead in another hour."_

_Mrs. Cole nodded impressively and took another generous gulp of gin._

_"Did she say anything before she died?" he asked. "Anything about the boy's father, for instance?"_

_"Yes, she did," said Mrs. Cole, who seemed to be rather enjoying herself now, with the gin in her hand and an eager audience for her story._

_"I remember she said, 'I hope he looks like his papa,' and I won't lie, she was right to hope it, because she was no beauty- and then she told me he was to be named Tom, for his father, and Marvolo, for her father- yes, I know, funny name, isn't it? We wondered whether she came from a circus she said the boy's last name was to be Riddle. And she died soon after that without another word. Well, we named him just as she'd said, it seemed so important to the poor girl, but no Tom, Marvolo or any kind of Riddle ever came looking for him. Or any family at all, so he stayed in the orphanage and he's been here ever since." Mrs. Cole helped herself, almost absentmindedly, to another healthy measure of gin._

_Then she said, "He's a funny boy."_

_"Yes," said Dumbledore. "I thought he might be."_

_"He was a funny baby too. He hardly ever cried. And then, when he got a little older, he was… odd."_

_"Odd in what way?" asked Dumbledore gently._

_"Well, he-" But Mrs. Cole pulled up short, and there was nothing blurry or vague about the inquisitorial glance she shot Dumbledore over her gin glass._

_"He's definitely got a place at your school, you say?"_

_"Definitely," said Dumbledore._

_"And nothing I say can change that?"_

_"Nothing," said Dumbledore._

_"You'll be taking him away, whatever?"_

_"Whatever," repeated Dumbledore._

_She decided she could trust him, because she said in a sudden rush,"He scares the other children."_

_"You mean he is a bully?" asked Dumbledore._

_"I think he must be," said Mrs. Cole, frowning slightly, "but it's very hard to catch him at it. There have been incidents... Nasty things..."_

_Dumbledore didn't press her. She took another gulp of gin._

_"Billy Stubbs' rabbit... well, Tom said he didn't do it. And I don't see how he could have done, but even so, it didn't hang itself from the rafters, did it?"_

_"I shouldn't think so, no," said Dumbledore quietly._

_"But I'm jiggered if I know how he got up there to do it. All I know is he and Billy had argued the day before. And then- well, Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop were never quite right afterwards, and all we ever got out of them was that they'd gone into a cave with Tom Riddle. He swore they'd just gone exploring, but something happened in there, I'm sure of it. And, there have been a lot of things... funny things."_

_"I don't think many people will be sorry to see the back of him."_

_"You understand, I'm sure, that we will not be keeping him permanently?" said Dumbledore._

_"He we'll have to return here every summer."_

_"Oh, well, that's better than a whack on the nose with a rusty poker." she said with a slight hiccup._

_She got to her feet._

_"I suppose you'd like to see him?"_

_"Very much." he said getting up too._

_She led him out of her office and up the stone stairs._

_"Here we are," said Mrs. Cole as they turned off the second landing and stopped outside the first door in a long corridor._

_She knocked twice and entered._

_"Tom? You've got a visitor. This is Mr. Dumbledore. He's come to tell you- well, I'll let him do it."_

_Dumbledore entered the room, and Mrs. Cole closed the door on them. It was a small bare room with nothing in it except an old wardrobe and an iron bedstead. A boy was sitting on top of the gray blankets, his legs stretched out in front of him, holding a book._

_There was no trace of the Gaunts in Tom Riddle's face. Merope had got her dying wish: He was his handsome father in miniature, tall for eleven years old, dark-haired, and pale. His eyes narrowed slightly as he took in Dumbledore's eccentric appearance. There was a moment's silence._

_"How do you do, Tom?" said Dumbledore, walking forward and holding out his hand._

_The boy hesitated, then took it, and they shook hands. Dumbledore drew up the hard wooden chair beside Riddle, so that the pair of them looked rather like a hospital patient and visitor._

_"I am Professor Dumbledore."_

_"'Professor'?" repeated Riddle. He looked wary. "Is that like 'doctor'? What are you here for? Did she get you in to have a look at me?"_

_He was pointing at the door through which Mrs. Cole had just left._

_"She wants me looked at, doesn't she? Tell the truth!"_

_He spoke the last three words with a ringing force that was almost shocking._

_It was a command, and it sounded as though he had given it many times before. His eyes had widened and he was glaring at Dumbledore, who made no response except to continue smiling pleasantly._

_After a few seconds Riddle stopped glaring, though he looked, if anything, warier still._

_"Who are you?"_

_"I have told you. My name is Professor Dumbledore and I work at a school called Hogwarts. I have come to offer you a place at my school- your new school, if you would like to come."_

_Riddle's reaction to this was most surprising. He leapt from the bed and backed away from Dumbledore, looking furious._

_"You can't kid me! The asylum, that's where you're from, isn't it? 'Professor,' yes, of course- well, I'm not going, see? That old cat's the one who should be in the asylum. I never did anything to little Amy Benson or Dennis Bishop, and you can ask them, they'll tell you!"_

_"I am not from the asylum," said Dumbledore patiently. "I am a teacher and, if you will sit down calmly, I shall tell you about Hogwarts. Of course, if you would rather not come to the school, nobody will force you-"_

_"I'd like to see them try," sneered Riddle._

_"Hogwarts," Dumbledore went on, as though he had not heard Riddle's last words, "is a school for people with special abilities-"_

_"I'm not mad!"_

_"I know that you are not mad. Hogwarts is not a school for mad people. It is a school of magic."_

_There was silence. Riddle had frozen, his face expressionless, but his eyes were flickering back and forth between each of Dumbledore's, as though trying to catch one of them lying._

_"Magic?" he repeated in a whisper._

_"That's right," said Dumbledore._

_"It's… it's magic, what I can do?"_

_"What is it that you can do?"_

_"All sorts," breathed Riddle._

_A flush of excitement was rising up his neck into his hollow cheeks; he looked fevered._

_"I can make filings move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to."_

_His legs were trembling. He stumbled forward and sat down on the bed again, staring at his hands, his head bowed as though in prayer._

_"I knew I was different," he whispered to his own quivering fingers._

_"I knew I was special. Always, I knew there was something."_

_"Well, you were quite right," said Dumbledore, who was no longer smiling, but watching Riddle intently._

_"You are a wizard." Riddle lifted his head._

_His face was transfigured: There was a wild happiness upon it, yet for some reason it didn't make him better looking; on the contrary, his finely carved features seemed somehow rougher, his expression almost bestial._

_"Are you a wizard too?"_

_"Yes, I am."_

_"Prove it," said Riddle at once, in the same commanding tone he had used when he had said, "Tell the truth."_

_Dumbledore raised his eyebrows._

_"If, as I take it, you are accepting your place at Hogwarts-"_

_"Of course I am!"_

_"Then you will address me as 'Professor' or 'sir.'"_

_Riddle's expression hardened for the most fleeting moment before he said, in an unrecognizably polite voice,_

_"I'm sorry, sir. I meant- please, Professor, could you show me-?"_

_Dumbledore drew his wand from an inside pocket of his suit jacket, pointed it at the shabby wardrobe in the corner, and gave the wand a casual flick. The wardrobe burst into flames._

_Riddle jumped to his feet; howling in shock and rage. But as Riddle rounded on Dumbledore, the flames vanished, leaving the wardrobe completely undamaged._

_Riddle stared from the wardrobe to Dumbledore; then, his expression greedy, he pointed at the wand._

_"Where can I get one of them?"_

_"All in good time," said Dumbledore. "I think there is something trying to get out of your wardrobe."_

_And sure enough, a faint rattling could be heard from inside it. For the first time, Riddle looked frightened._

_"Open the door," said Dumbledore._

_Riddle hesitated, then crossed the room and threw open the wardrobe door. On the topmost shelf, above a rail of threadbare clothes, a small cardboard box was shaking and rattling as though there were several frantic mice trapped inside it._

_"Take it out," said Dumbledore._

_Riddle took down the quaking box. He looked unnerved._

_"Is there anything in that box that you ought not to have?" asked Dumbledore._

_Riddle threw Dumbledore a long, clear, calculating look._

_"Yes, I suppose so, sir," he said finally, in a expressionless voice._

_"Open it," said Dumbledore._

_Riddle took off the lid and tipped the contents onto his bed without looking at them. There was a mess of small, everyday objects: a yo-yo, a silver thimble, and a tarnished mouth organ among them. Once free of the box, they stopped quivering and lay quite still upon the thin blankets._

_"You will return them to their owners with your apologies," said Dumbledore calmly, putting his wand back into his jacket. "I shall know whether it has been done. And be warned: Thieving is not tolerated at Hogwarts."_

_Riddle did not look remotely abashed; he was still staring coldly and appraisingly at Dumbledore._

_At last he said in a colorless voice, "Yes, sir."_

_"At Hogwarts," Dumbledore went on, "we teach you not only to use magic, but to control it. You have- inadvertently, I am sure- been using your powers in a way that is neither taught nor tolerated at our school. You are not the first, nor will you be the last, to allow your magic to run away with you. But you should know that Hogwarts can expel students, and the Ministry of Magic- yes, there is a Ministry- will punish lawbreakers still more severely. All new wizards must accept that, in entering our world, they abide by our laws."_

_"Yes, sir," said Riddle again._

_It was impossible to tell what he was thinking; his face remained quite blank as he put the little cache of stolen objects back into the cardboard box._

_When he had finished, he turned to Dumbledore and said baldly, "I haven't got any money."_

_"That is easily remedied," said Dumbledore, drawing a leather money-pouch from his pocket. "There is a fund at Hogwarts for those who require assistance to buy books and robes. You might have to buy some of your spell books and so on secondhand, but-"_

_"Where do you buy spell books?" interrupted Riddle, who had taken the heavy money bag without thanking Dumbledore, and was now examining a fat gold Galleon._

_"In Diagon Alley," said Dumbledore. "I have your list of books and school equipment with me. I can help you find everything-"_

_"You're coming with me?" asked Riddle, looking up._

_"Certainly, if you-"_

_"I don't need you," said Riddle. "I'm used to doing things for myself; I go round London on my own all the time. How do you get to this Diagon Alley- sir?" he added, catching Dumbledore's eye._

_Dumbledore handed Riddle the envelope containing his list of equipment, and after telling Riddle exactly how to get to the Leaky Cauldron from the orphanage, he said,_

_"You will be able to see it, although Muggles around you- non-magical people, that is- will not. Ask for Tom the barman- easy enough to remember, as he shares your name-"_

_Riddle gave an irritable twitch, as though trying to displace an irksome fly. "You dislike the name 'Tom'?"_

_"There are a lot of Toms," muttered Riddle._

_Then, as though he could not suppress the question, as though it burst from him in spite of himself, he asked,_

_"Was my father a wizard? He was called Tom Riddle too, they've told me."_

_"I'm afraid I don't know," said Dumbledore, his voice gentle._

_"My mother can't have been magic, or she wouldn't have died," said Riddle, more to himself than Dumbledore._

_"It must've been him. So- when I've got all my stuff- when do I come to this Hogwarts?"_

_"All the details are on the second piece of parchment in your envelope," said Dumbledore. "You will leave from King's Cross Station on the first of September. There is a train ticket in there too."_

_Riddle nodded. Dumbledore got to his feet and held out his hand again. Taking it, Riddle said,_

_"I can speak to snakes. I found out when we've been to the country on trips- they find me, they whisper to me. Is that normal for a wizard?"_

_"It is unusual," said Dumbledore, after a moment's hesitation, "but not unheard of."_

_His tone was casual but his eyes moved curiously over Riddle's face. They stood for a moment, man and boy, staring at each other. Then the handshake was broken; Dumbledore was at the door._

_"Good-bye, Tom. I shall see you at Hogwarts."_

_Then they were out of the memory._

"Did you know sir, then?" Harriet asked.

"That I had just met the most dangerous wizard? No. If I did I wouldn't have let him go. Over time while here at Hogwarts, Tom Riddle grew close to one particular teacher."

He looked at Harriet.

"Can you guess who that teacher might be?"

"You didn't ask Professor Slughorn to come back simply to teach, did you Professor?" she asked.

"No, I didn't. You see the reason I brought him back is because he has something we need. But he won't give it to easily."

"You said Professor Slughorn would try and collect me." Harriet started.

"I did." Dumbledore said.

"Do you want me to let him?" she continued.

"Yes."

Then he told her she was done for the day.

She nodded and headed to Gryffindor Common Room.


	8. Chapter 8

A few days later it was quidditch tryouts.

Ron was just standing there while everyone else was talking to each other. Ginny was standing next to her and Hermione and Neville were watching.

"Quiet please!" Harriet yelled.

They all stopped talking and waited.

"Alright, even though you were here last year doesn't mean you will be joining this year to. Got it?" she said using her leadership.

Everyone nodded and remembered what she does to her teams.

As gentle as she is she can still make them work hard.

They all nodded and got into position. Then Harriet had Neville set off everything. She had asked Neville to help a little.

McGonagall had said Harriet was going to stay the seeker.

While they worked on tryouts Harriet watched closely. Ron almost fell on his broom.

"Come on Ron." she whispered.

When they were done Harriet nodded.

"Alright, not bad. When I find out who's on the team I'll give you a schedule. And people that were on the team with Wood, I won't wake you up at five in the morning or things he did to us."

They all sighed in relief. But they had a feeling she wasn't going to be as bad as Wood after being on the team since her first year.

Later that night they were in the common room.

"I have to admit I thought I was gonna miss that last one." Ron said.

Then he looked at Hermione.

"Hope Cormac's not taking it too hard. He's got a bit of a thing for you, Hermione- - Cormac."

"He's vile." she said.

"Have you ever heard of this spell, Sectumsempra?" Harriet asked.

"No I haven't. And if I were you I'd hand the book over to McGonagall." Hermione said.

"Not bloody likely. She's top of the class. She's even better than you Hermione!" Neville said.

"I'd like to know who's book that was." Hermione said while she reached for it.

"No." Harriet said while she stood up and closed it.

"Why not?"

"The binding is fragile."

"The binding is fragile?"

Then Ginny reached over and grabbed it.

"Who's the halfblood prince?" she asked.

"Who?" Neville asked.

"The halfblood Prince. That's what it says right here." she said pointing at it.

'That name sounds familiar. I think gran had brought them up to mum and dad.' Neville thought.

Before they knew it they were at Hogsmead and it was snowing.

"For weeks you've been reading that book, you practically sleep with it!" Hermione said.

"I didn't say I wasn't curious. And I don't sleep with it." Harriet said.

"It's true. I see you reading it every night!" she said.

"Well I was curious so I went to-" she started but was interrupted.

"The library." the three of them said together.

Even though he had joined the three of them fourth year when he started dating Harriet Neville still knew she loved the library.

"And?" Neville asked.

"And nothing." she said.

Then they heard someone.

"Yeah, uh... hoping to find you in the Three Broomsticks. Uh no, emergency choir practice from the freighthorse." Slughorn said.

"Anyone up for a butterbeer?" Harriet asked.

When they got there Harriet looked at Slughorn and wondered what he had done back then.

When Ron was about to sit down Harriet said,

"Uh, I was about to sit there. So can you sit on the other side?"

"Alright." he said.

Then Harriet sat down and looked at him. Neville sat next to her.

_'God I wish I could use legilimancy__! But I don't know exactly how to do it.'_ she thought.

While they did that Hermione asked the waiter for four butterbeers.

Then Ron saw Ginny with Dean.

"Oh bloody hell." he said.

Harriet, Neville and Hermione looked at them to.

"Ron see, they're only holding hands." Hermione said rolling her eyes.

Then she saw them do something else.

"And snogging." she continued.

"I'd like to leave." he said.

"What? You can't be serious!" Hermione said.

Harriet twitched at the word 'serious'. She had a picture of Sirius in her head and fought tears in her eyes.

Neville looked at her and squeezed her hand.

She opened her eyes and looked at him smiling a little.

"What if she looked at me and saw us snogging? Do you think she would just get up and leave?" Hermione asked.

"You don't leave when me and Harriet are kissing either." Neville said.

She was leaning on him still calming down a little while he rubbed her back slowly.

"Harriet my girl! You three!" Slughorn said shaking their hand when they stood up.

"Oh Professor it's good to see you." Harriet said.

"So what brings you four here? Some heat and a snack?" he asked.

"Yes sir." she said.

"All hands on deck, Granger, Longbottom. Listen, in the old days, I used to throw together the occassional supper party. Select two student or three. Would you three be game?"

"I consider it an honor sir." Harriet said.

"Me too sir." Neville said.

"Excellent! You're included to Ms. Granger."

She put her drink down.

"I'd be delighted sir." she said.

"Splendid. Look for my owl." Then he turned to Ron. "Good to see you Wallenby."

When he left Harriet sat back down .

Then Ron looked at her.

"What are you on about?"

"Dumbledore wants me to get to know him." she said.

He looked at her confused.

"Get to know him?"

"Dunno. It must be important. If it wasn't, Dumbledore wouldn't ask." she said.

Then they looked at Hermione.

"You got a little bit..." Ron started and pointed his finger on his lip.

She wiped it off her face.

Then they were on their way back to school.

"Ahh!" someone yelled.

Harriet, Neville, Ron and Hermione stopped and looked at what was going on.

"Katie, we don't know what it could be!" she said.

She was going back and forth and then was in the air.

Then Harriet started to walk over to the object.

"Harriet, what are you?" Hermione started.

"I know what I'm doing." she said.

"Step back! Don't get any closer, get back all of ya!" Hagrid said.

Then Harriet picked up a part of the object.

"Do not touch that! Except for the wrapping, do you understand?"

They just looked at each other wondering what happened.


	9. Chapter 9

A few days later it was quidditch tryouts.

Ron was just standing there while everyone else was talking to each other. Ginny was standing next to her and Hermione and Neville were watching.

"Quiet please!" Harriet yelled.

They all stopped talking and waited.

"Alright, even though you were here last year doesn't mean you will be joining this year to. Got it?" she said using her leadership.

Everyone nodded and remembered what she does to her teams.

As gentle as she is she can still make them work hard.

They all nodded and got into position. Then Harriet had Neville set off everything. She had asked Neville to help a little.

McGonagall had said Harriet was going to stay the seeker.

While they worked on tryouts Harriet watched closely. Ron almost fell on his broom.

"Come on Ron." she whispered.

When they were done Harriet nodded.

"Alright, not bad. When I find out who's on the team I'll give you a schedule. And people that were on the team with Wood, I won't wake you up at five in the morning or things he did to us."

They all sighed in relief. But they had a feeling she wasn't going to be as bad as Wood after being on the team since her first year.

Later that night they were in the common room.

"I have to admit I thought I was gonna miss that last one." Ron said.

Then he looked at Hermione.

"Hope Cormac's not taking it too hard. He's got a bit of a thing for you, Hermione- - Cormac."

"He's vile." she said.

"Have you ever heard of this spell, Sectumsempra?" Harriet asked.

"No I haven't. And if I were you I'd hand the book over to McGonagall." Hermione said.

"Not bloody likely. She's top of the class. She's even better than you Hermione!" Neville said.

"I'd like to know who's book that was." Hermione said while she reached for it.

"No." Harriet said while she stood up and closed it.

"Why not?"

"The binding is fragile."

"The binding is fragile?"

Then Ginny reached over and grabbed it.

"Who's the halfblood prince?" she asked.

"Who?" Neville asked.

"The halfblood Prince. That's what it says right here." she said pointing at it.

'That name sounds familiar. I think gran had brought them up to mum and dad.' Neville thought.

Before they knew it they were at Hogsmead and it was snowing.

"For weeks you've been reading that book, you practically sleep with it!" Hermione said.

"I didn't say I wasn't curious. And I don't sleep with it." Harriet said.

"It's true. I see you reading it every night!" she said.

"Well I was curious so I went to-" she started but was interrupted.

"The library." the three of them said together.

Even though he had joined the three of them fourth year when he started dating Harriet Neville still knew she loved the library.

"And?" Neville asked.

"And nothing." she said.

Then they heard someone.

"Yeah, uh... hoping to find you in the Three Broomsticks. Uh no, emergency choir practice from the freighthorse." Slughorn said.

"Anyone up for a butterbeer?" Harriet asked.

When they got there Harriet looked at Slughorn and wondered what he had done back then.

When Ron was about to sit down Harriet said,

"Uh, I was about to sit there. So can you sit on the other side?"

"Alright." he said.

Then Harriet sat down and looked at him. Neville sat next to her.

_'God I wish I could use legilimancy__! But I don't know exactly how to do it.'_ she thought.

While they did that Hermione asked the waiter for four butterbeers.

Then Ron saw Ginny with Dean.

"Oh bloody hell." he said.

Harriet, Neville and Hermione looked at them to.

"Ron see, they're only holding hands." Hermione said rolling her eyes.

Then she saw them do something else.

"And snogging." she continued.

"I'd like to leave." he said.

"What? You can't be serious!" Hermione said.

Harriet twitched at the word 'serious'. She had a picture of Sirius in her head and fought tears in her eyes.

Neville looked at her and squeezed her hand.

She opened her eyes and looked at him smiling a little.

"What if she looked at me and saw us snogging? Do you think she would just get up and leave?" Hermione asked.

"You don't leave when me and Harriet are kissing either." Neville said.

She was leaning on him still calming down a little while he rubbed her back slowly.

"Harriet my girl! You three!" Slughorn said shaking their hand when they stood up.

"Oh Professor it's good to see you." Harriet said.

"So what brings you four here? Some heat and a snack?" he asked.

"Yes sir." she said.

"All hands on deck, Granger, Longbottom. Listen, in the old days, I used to throw together the occassional supper party. Select two student or three. Would you three be game?"

"I consider it an honor sir." Harriet said.

"Me too sir." Neville said.

"Excellent! You're included to Ms. Granger."

She put her drink down.

"I'd be delighted sir." she said.

"Splendid. Look for my owl." Then he turned to Ron. "Good to see you Wallenby."

When he left Harriet sat back down .

Then Ron looked at her.

"What are you on about?"

"Dumbledore wants me to get to know him." she said.

He looked at her confused.

"Get to know him?"

"Dunno. It must be important. If it wasn't, Dumbledore wouldn't ask." she said.

Then they looked at Hermione.

"You got a little bit..." Ron started and pointed his finger on his lip.

She wiped it off her face.

Then they were on their way back to school.

"Ahh!" someone yelled.

Harriet, Neville, Ron and Hermione stopped and looked at what was going on.

"Katie, we don't know what it could be!" she said.

She was going back and forth and then was in the air.

Then Harriet started to walk over to the object.

"Harriet, what are you?" Hermione started.

"I know what I'm doing." she said.

"Step back! Don't get any closer, get back all of ya!" Hagrid said.

Then Harriet picked up a part of the object.

"Do not touch that! Except for the wrapping, do you understand?"

They just looked at each other wondering what happened.

After that they were in McGonagall's office.

"You're sure Katie didn't have this in her position when she entered the Three Broomsticks?"

"It's like I said, she left to the bathroom. When she came back she had the bag. She said it was important that she deliver."

"Did she say to whom?"

"Professor Dumbledore."

"Very well. Thank you, Leanne. You may go."

When she left McGonagall looked at Harriet, Ron, Neville and Hermione.

"Why is it, that it's always you three? And now four with Longbottom and Potter together!"

"Believe me, Professor, I've been asking myself the same question for six years." Ron said.

"And I'm new at it." Neville said.

Then Snape was passing by.

"Oh Severus!"

He picked up the necklace with his wand.

"What do you think?"

"I think, Ms. Bell, is lucky to be alive." he said lifting it up with his wand.

"She was cursed wasn't she? I know Katie, off the quidditch pitch. She wouldn't hurt a fly. If she was delivering that to Professor Dumbledore, she wasn't doing it knowingly." Harriet said.

"Yes Ms. Potter, she was cursed."

"It was Malfoy."

"That is a very accusation Ms. Potter." McGonagall said.

"Indeed. Your evidence?" Snape asked starring at her in the eyes.

"I just know." she said not looking directly at him.

She could tell he wanted to use legilimancy on her.

"You "just" know. Once again, you're astonished with your gifts, Potter. Gifts mere mortals can only dream of possessing. How grand it must be to be the Chosen One." he said.

The last two words he looked at Harriet. Without thinking she glared directly at him.

"I suggest you go back to your dormitories. All of you." McGonagall said.

Later that night Harriet and Ron were in the common room.

"What do you suppose Dean thinks about her- Ginny? He's brilliant." Ron asked.

"You called him a slick dick five hours ago." Harriet said.

"Yeah, well he was running his hands all over her. Wasn't he? Something snaps. You've got to hate him, you know? Old printable."

"I suppose."

"What do you think about her?"

"I don't know. She's smart and fun has nice skin."

"Skin? You're saying Dean likes her because of her skin? For blood you mean?"

"I'm just saying, it could be a contributing factor."

Ron laid there on the couch in thought.

"Hermione has good skin."

"I suppose yeah."

"Very nice."

"I think I'm going to sleep now." Harriet said and headed to the girl's dormitory.


	10. Chapter 10

A few days later Harriet, Neville and Hermione were at Slughorn's club room.

While they talked Cormac was telling them about his uncle and having his ice cream.

He was going hunting with his uncle and the ministry over the holidays.

"Oh well, be sure to give them both my best. And what about you Ms. Belby? For anyone who doesn't know, Marcus' uncle is who created wolfsbane. Is he working on anything else?" he asked.

"I don't know, he and my dad don't really get along. Probably because my dad says potions are rubbish. His only potion worth having is a stiff one at the end of the day." he said.

"And what about you Ms. Granger? What exactly does your family do in the Muggle world?" Slughorn asked looking at her.

"My parents are dentists." Hermione said.

A lot of people looked at her confused.

"They attend people's teeth." she said.

"Fascinating. And is that considered a dangerous job?"

"No, although, one day Robby Fenwich, bit my father. Ha, he needed ten stitches." she said chuckling.

Then the door was opened and they saw Ginny.

"Ah, Ms. Weasley. Come in, come in." Slughorn said.

"Look at her eyes. She's been fighting again. Her and Dean." Hermione said to Harriet and Neville.

They nodded.

"Sorry, I'm not usually late." Ginny said and shut the door.

"Not at all, not at all. You're just in time for dessert. That is if Belby didn't eat it all." he said.

After the dessert everyone started to leave.

"Good bye, bye bye."

Then he shut the door and he saw Harriet still there. Neville and Hermione were going to meet up with her later.

"Potter!" he said jumping.

"Sorry sir, we were just admiring your hourglass." Harriet said.

"Ah yes, most intriguing object. The sand runs in accordance with the quality of the conversation. It is stimulating, the sand runs slowly. If it is not..."

"I think I'll be going, then." she said.

"Nonsense! You have nothing to fear." Slughorn said. "Actually some of your classmates, well let's just say that they're not likely to make the shelf."

"Shelf sir?" she said confused.

"Anyone who aspires to be anyone hopes to end up here. But then again, you already are someone, aren't you, Harriet?"

"Did Voldemort join the shelf sir? You knew him, didn't you sir? Tom Riddle? You were his teacher." she said.

"Mr. Riddle had a number of teachers who were here at Hogwarts." he said.

"What was he like?" she asked.

Slughorn looked at her.

"I'm sorry sir, he killed my parents." she said.

"Of course, it's only natural you should want to know more. But I'm afraid I must disappoint you, you two. When I first met young Mr. Riddle, he was a quiet, albeit brilliant boy, committed to becoming a first-grade wizard. Not unlike others I've known. Not unlike yourself, in fact. If the monster existed, it was very deep within." he said.

A few minutes later she said goodbye to Slughorn and headed back to the common room.


	11. Chapter 11

Sure enough it was the first game of the year.

Ron was nervous while he headed to the table.

"Alright Ron?" Dean asked.

He got no answer.

"I'm counting on you Ron." Seamus said.

When he got to the table and sat down.

"So how was it then?" Ron asked.

"How was what?" Hermione asked.

"The dinner party."

"Pretty boring actually. Slughorn is celebrating Christmas to you know. And I'm about to bring someone." Hermione said.

"I expect you're bringing McLaggen. He's in the Slug club to isn't he?" Ron asked.

"Actually I was going to ask you." she said.

Then Astrid appeared.

"Good luck today Ron. I know you'll be brilliant." she said.

When she left he looked at Harriet.

"I'm resigning, after today."

"Have it your way." she picked up a cup. "Juice."

"Hello everyone." Luna said with a lion on her face.

"You look dreadful Ron. Is that why you put something in his cup? Is it atomic?" she asked.

Hermione looked at her and then the potion.

"Liquid luck." Hermione said

Ron looked at it and picked it up.

"Don't drink it Ron!" she said.

Then he drank it and Hermione looked at Harriet.

"You could be expelled for that." she said.

"I don't know what you're talking about." she said.

"Come on Harriet, we've got a game to win!" Ron said.

Then they shook hands and headed to the game.

While the game went on Ron was getting every ball away from the goal hoops blocked.

Harriet looked around for the snitch and watched him.

Everyone was yelling Ron's name over and over again.

"YEAH! WHOA! YEAH!" Ron yelled.

When the game was over they were all cheering Ron's name.

"Weasley! Weasley! Weasley!"

"Knew you shouldn't have done it." Hermione said.

"I know, I could have used the cofungus charm instead." Harriet said.

Neville started chuckling a little. Harriet had told him her plan on their way to breakfast.

"That was different. That was try-outs, this was a natural game."

While she said that Harriet took out her potion.

"You didn't put it in? Ron only thought you did."

Then they looked at them again.

Astrid walked over to him and kissed him.

Hermione stood there for a few seconds and then left.

Harriet looked at Neville and he nodded. Then she went to find Hermione.

When she found her she saw her crying. She sat down next to her.

"Charm spell, I'm just practicing." she said.

"Well you're really good." Harriet said.

"How does it feel Harriet? To know you have Neville? You're one of my best friends. And I just wanna know." she said.

Then they heard someone laughing and saw Ron and Astrid.

"Oops, I think this room is taken." Astrid said when she saw them.

"What's with the birds?" Ron asked when she left.

Hermione stood up and looked at him.

"Oppugno!"

Then the birds started aiming at him and he jumped around then left.

She started to cry again.

Harriet gave her a hug and helped her to calm down.

The next day Harriet and Hermione were at the library. Hermione was putting books away.

"I'm a free agent. He's at perfect liberty to kiss whomever he likes." Hermione said putting another book away.

"I really couldn't care less. Was I under the impression he and I would be attending Slughorn's Christmas party together? Yes. Now, given the circumstances, I had to make other arrangements." she continued.

"Have you?" Harriet asked.

"Yes. Why?" she said.

"I was just wondering who you're going with."

"Um, it's a surprise. Anyways, you have got to worry about. You can't take anyone. You see that boy over there? That's Ryan Vane. He's been trying to make a love potion."

"Why?" she asked.

"He's only interested in you because you're the Chosen One."

"I may be the Chosen One but I'm fine with Neville." she said.

Later that night Harriet and Neville were on their way to the party.

When they got there Seamus appeared with a drink.

"Drink?" he asked.

"Seamus!" Harriet said.

"I didn't get into the Slug Club. It's Ok though. He's got Melvin hanging up towels in the bathroom." he said.

"I'm fine thanks."

"Same here." Neville said.

"OK." he said.

Then they saw Hermione going behind a curtain. So they headed to where she was.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" Neville said.

"What happened to you?" Harriet asked.

"No I just escaped. I mean, I left Cormac under the mistletoe."

"Cormac? That's who you invited?!" Harriet said shocked.

"I thought it would annoy Ron." she said.

Then someone came something.

"Dragon tails?" he asked.

"I'm fine thanks." Hermione said.

Harriet and Neville shook their head.

"Just this one. They give you a horrible breath." he said.

"On second thought," Hermione said.

She grabbed the entire helping.

When she got one in her mouth she saw Cormac coming.

"Oh god here he comes."

She handed Harriet the food and left. A few seconds later Cormac came.

"She just left to powder her nose." she said.

"She's a bit of a minx. Isn't she?" he said taking some food.

"Yeah, yeah." Harriet said.

"What is this anyway?"

"Dragon balls." Neville said.

A few seconds later Snape appeared and Cormac threw up on top of his shoe.

"You just got a month detention. Not, so quick Potter, Longbottom."

They stopped and looked at him.

"We really should get back to the party sir." Harriet said.

"Yeah." Neville said.

"I'm sure your can wait a few minutes. This is from Professor Dumbledore saying he wishes you two a happy Christmas. He's traveling now."

"Traveling where?" Harriet asked.

Then Snape was interrupted by someone.

"Get your hand off me you squib!" Malfoy said.

"Professor Slughorn sir. I just discovered this boy lurking in the upstairs corridor. He claims to be invited to your party." Filch said.

"OK OK I was gate-crossing happy?" Malfoy said.

"I'll, escort him out." Snape said.

"Certainly, Professor." he said pulling his arm off Filch.

"Alright everyone, carry on, carry on." Slughorn said.

Harriet looked at Neville and then they followed Snape and Malfoy.

"Maybe I did hex that Bell girl. Maybe I didn't. What about you?" Malfoy said.

"I swore to protect you. I made the Unbreakable Vow!" Snape said.

"I don't need protection. I was chosen for this. This is my moment!"

Harriet looked at Neville.

"An unbreakable vow?" Neville said.

"What's an unbreakable vow?" she asked.

"It's when you swear to do something. And if you break it you die." he explained.

She nodded quietly thinking.


	12. Chapter 12

Sure enough they were on their way home.

"An unbreakable vow? Are you sure that's what Snape said?" Ron said.

"Positive." Harriet said.

Then they heard something and looked at what it was.

"Oh bloody hell." Ron said.

It was Astrid drawing a heart and R+A from her breath.

"Lovely." Harriet said.

"All she wants to do it snog me. My lips are chapped look!" he said.

"We'll take your word for it." Neville said.

Then Hermione came, saw the words and left.

Later that night they were at the Burrow.

"Voldemort has chosen Draco Malfoy for a mission?" Remus said.

"I know it sounds weird, but that's what I heard." Harriet said.

"Has it ever occurred to you that Severus was pretending to protect Draco help so he could find out what he was up to?" Remus said.

"Ginny!" Molly called.

"Maybe she's right, I mean to make an unbreakable vow-" Tonks started.

"It comes down to this and everyone knows Dumbledore trusts Snape. There for I do." Remus said.

"Dumbledore can make mistakes. He said it himself last year." Harriet said.

"You are blinded by hatred."

"I'm not." she said.

"Yes, you are!" Remus said.

Then he calmed down.

"People are disappearing, Harriet. Daily. We could only place our trust in a handful of people. If we started fighting amongst ourselves, we're doomed!"

Then he stood up and left.

Tonks did the same thing. Then Neville came and sat down next to Harriet.

"Open up you. Don't you trust me?" he said.

She opened her mouth and he put it in.

"It's good." she said.

Then Ron came and sat in between them.

"Just Ahh," he started and sat down.

Harriet and Neville sat there a little upset.

"Pie?" he asked.

"Not for me thanks." Harriet said.

An hour later Harriet was with Arthur.

"You'll have to forgive Remus. It takes its toll, his condition." Arthur said.

"Are you alright, Mr. Weasley?" Harriet asked.

"We're being followed, all of us. Most days, Molly doesn't leave the house. It's not been easy." he said.

"Did you get my owl?" she asked.

"Yes, I did. If Dumbledore is traveling, then perhaps news to the Ministry, but perhaps that's the way Dumbledore wants it. As for Draco Malfoy... I know a bit more." he said.

"Go on." she said.

"I sent an agent to Borgin and Burkes. I think from what you described... What you saw at the end of summer, the object that Draco is so interested in, is a Vanishing Cabinet." he said.

"Vanishing Cabinet?"

"Yes. But they were all the rage when Voldemort first rose to power. They got rid of them all after he was gone." he said.

"What happened to it? The one at Borgin and Burkes?" Harriet asked.

"Nothing. It's still there." he said.

After dinner Remus and Tonks were about to leave.

"It was delicious Molly." Tonks said.

"Are you sure you can't stay?" she said.

"No, we should go. First night of the cycle is always the worst." she whispered.

Remus was just standing there as if he could sense something.

"Sweetheart?" she said.

Harriet was about to go get ready for bed but bumped into Neville. He was going to spend the night.

"Has Ginny gone to bed?" Neville said when he was about to go to.

"No not yet." she said.

"Your shoe is untied." he said.

Then he went down and tied it for her.

"Happy Christmas Harriet." he said when he was back up.

"Happy Christmas Neville." she said back.

Then they kissed each other.

A few minutes later they heard something and looked out the window. Then they saw Belatrix Lestrange.

Harriet got down the stairs and started running to her.

"Harriet no!" Remus yelled.

He started running after her.

"Remus!" Tonks said and started running to.

"Neville!" Arthur said while Neville started running to Harriet.

"I killed Sirius Black! I killed Sirius Black! You coming to get me? Get me! She's trying to get me!" Belatrix said while she ran.

Neville kept running and stopped when he got to the lake.

"Harriet?" he said looking around.

Then someone came out and was aiming at Neville.

_"Stupefy!_" Harriet yelled.

"Harriet!" Remus yelled out.

"Neville!" Arthur yelled out.

When they got there they started dueling three Death Eaters. While they did that they started to fly. When one of them got to the burrow it was set on fire.

"Molly." Arthur said and started running.

When he got there he saw her standing outside the house. The house was on fire.


	13. Chapter 13

Before they knew it they were on their way to school.

"It's so easy for them to get to you. You're bloody lucky you weren't killed. You have to realize who you are, Harriet!" Hermione said walking to the table with the Prophet in her hands.

"I know who I am, Hermione, alright?" she said.

Then she turned around.

"Sorry."

Ron was sitting there with Astrid and the three of them were disgusted.

"Excuse me I have to go vomit." Hermione said.

Later that night Harriet was in Dumbledore's office again.

_They were watching the next penesive._

_"Sir, is it true that Professor Merrythought is retiring?" Tom asked._

_"Tom, I couldn't tell you if I knew, could I? And by the way, thank you for the pineapple. You're quite right. It is my favorite. But how did you know?" Slughorn said._

_"Intuition." he said._

_Then Slughorn looked at the time._

_"Good gracious, is it that time already? Off you go, boys, or Professor Dippett will have us all in detention."_

_Next was Tom tapping Slughorn's time castle._

_"Look sharp, Tom. Don't be caught out of bed after hours. Is something on your mind, Tom?"_

_"Yes, sir. See, I couldn't think of anyone else to go to. The other professors... Well, they're not like you. They might misunderstand."_

_"Go on."_

_"I was in the library the other night. In the restricted section. And I picked something rather odd about this rare magic. I thought perhaps, you could illuminate me. It's called, as I understand it, horcrux."_

_"I beg your pardon? I don't know anything about such things and if I did, I wouldn't tell you. Now get out of here at once and don't let me ever catch you mentioning them again!"_

When they we're gone Harriet sat down.

"Confused? I'd be surprised if you weren't." Dumbledore said.

"I don't understand. What happened?" Harriet said.

"This is perhaps the most important memory of them all. But it's also a lie. This memory has been tampered with by our old friend, Professor Slughorn himself." Dumbledore said.

"But why would he tamper his own memory?" she asked.

"I suppose he's ashamed of himself." Dumbledore said.

"Why?"

"Why indeed. I asked you to get to know him and you did so. Now I want you to persuade him to divulge him his true memory. Any way you can."

They sat there quietly.

"I don't know him that well sir." she said.

"This memory is everything. Without it, we're blind. Without it, we leave the fate of our world to chance. You have no choice. You must not fail."

She looked at Dumbledore and nodded.

"I'll do the best I can sir."

The next day they were in potions and listening to Slughorn.

Harriet had a little trouble focusing on class.

"I highly recommend, reacquaint yourself with the chapter on antidotes. Now, I'll tell you more about bezoars in our next class. Right, off you go. Elise, don't forget your rat tail." he said.

When everyone was gone he saw Harriet.

"Aha! If it isn't the princess of potions herself! What do I owe this pleasure?" he said.

"I was just wondering if I could ask you something." Harriet said.

"Ask away, dear girl, Ask away." he said.

"Well I was in the library in the restricted section, and came across something odd about a rare piece of magic." she said.

"And what would that rare piece of magic be?"

She could tell he was a little nervous.

"Well, I don't know what it is exactly. I was just wondering, is there a type of magic we're not allowed to learn about?"

"I'm a potions master. I think you should talk to Professor Snape about this." he said.

"Yes well, you see the two of us don't see eye to eye together. What I mean to say is, well he's not like you. He might misunderstand us." she said.

"Yes, it would be no light without dark. And so it's with magic myself I always strive to live within the light. I suggest you do the same." he said.

"Is that what you told Tom Riddle sir? When he came asking questions?" she asked.

Then Slughorn froze.

"Dumbledore put you up to this didn't he? Didn't he?!"

She stood there quietly and then left.

Later that night she went back to his office and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" he said sticking his head out.

"Oh, I'm sorry Harriet I'm busy right now."

Then he shut the window.

When she got back she saw Ron sitting on the ground looking out the window.

"It's beautiful isn't it? The moon." Ron said.

"Devine. Have ourselves a late night snack did we?" Harriet said.

"It was on the table with your name on it, the box. Thought I'd have one."

She snorted. "Or twenty."

"I can't stop thinking about him Harriet."

"Honestly, you know I reckon she's starting to annoy you."

Then she realized he said 'him' and not 'her'.

"He could never annoy me. I think I love him." Ron said while he stood up and started to walk over to her.

"Well, brilliant."

"Do you think he knows I exist?"

Harriet stood there confused.

"I very well hope she does. I mean she's been snogging you for three months."

"Snogging? Who are you talking about?"

"Who are you talking about?"

"Ryan of course. Ryan Vance."

"OK very funny."

Then Ron threw the box at her and got her head.

"What's that for?" she asked.

"It's no joke, I'm in love with him!"

"Alright you're in love with him. Have you ever really met him?"

"No. Could you introduce me?"

Harriet headed to the table and looked up at the note. She noticed what it was.

'A love potion.' she thought.

Then she walked over to Ron and grabbed his hand.

"Come on Ron. Let's go meet Ryan."

When they got to where they were headed Harriet knocked on the door. When the window was opened he looked at Harriet.

"I'm sorry sir, I wouldn't have bothered you if it weren't absolutely essential."

"Where's Ryan?" Ron asked.

"What's wrong with Wimby?"

Harriet got a little closer.

"Very powerful love potion."

"Very well, better bring him in."

So he opened the door and Harriet and Ron walked in. Then Harriet had him sit down.

"I always thought you could whip up a remedy for this time Harriet."

"I thought it this called for more practiced hands sir."

"Hello darling." Ron said and put his hands around his arm.

"Perhaps you're right." Slughorn said.

So Harriet had Ron sit back down.

"I'm sorry about earlier today Professor. Our misunderstanding." she said.

"Oh, not at all. Old water under the bridge you know. Correct?"

"Well I expect you're tired a bit, after all these years. And the questions about Voldemort."

"Don't use that name!"

Then he handed Ron the potion.

"Here you are boy. Bottoms up."

"What's this?" Ron asked.

"Tonic for the nerves." Slughorn said.

After he drank it Ron was confused.

"What happened to me?" he asked.

"Love potion." Harriet said.

"A bloody strong one at there." Slughorn said.

"I feel really bad." Ron said.

"You need a pick up my boy. Got butterbeer, wine, dazzling oak-matured mead. I had other intentions for this, but I think given the circumstances like this."

He poured three glasses of the drink.

"Here you are Potter. To life!"

Then Ron was on the ground shaking.

"Ron! Ron!" Then she looked at Slughorn. "Professor, do something!"

"I, I don't understand!"

Harriet looked at the box of things and then found what he was looking for.

She put the potion in Ron's mouth and closed it.

"Come on Ron, breath!"

Ron started coughing.

"These boys, they're trying to kill me."

Then he was on his back out cold.


	14. Chapter 14

Harriet, Neville, Hermione, Ginny, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Slughorn were in the hospital wing looking at Ron.

"Quick thinking on your part Harriet using bezoar. You should be very proud of your student Horace." Dumbledore said.

"Ah yes, very proud." he said.

"I think we agree, Potter's actions were heroic. The question is, why were they necessary?" McGonagall said.

"I, indeed. This appears to be a gift Horace. You don't remember who gave you this bottle? By the way, it possesses remarkably subtle hints of liquorice and cherry. When not polluted with poison." Dumbledore said.

"Actually I had intended to give it as a gift myself." Slughorn said.

"To whom might I ask?"

"To you headmaster."

"Where is he? Where's my won-won? Has he been asking for me?" Astrid said.

Then she saw Hermione sitting next to him.

"What is she doing here?"

"I might ask you the same thing." Hermione said.

"I happen to be his girlfriend!"

"I happen to be his, friend." she said.

"Don't make me laugh! You haven't spoken to him in weeks. I suppose you want to make it up to him now that he's suddenly all interesting?"

"He's been poisoned you daft dumbo! And for the record, I've always found him interesting." Hermione said.

Then Ron started to mutter something.

"See? He senses my presents. Don't worry Won-Won, I'm here. I'm here." she said.

"Hermione. Hermione. Hermione." Ron continued to say.

Astrid started crying and ran away.

"Oh to be young and to feel love's keen sting. Well, come over, everybody. Mr. Weasley's well attended." Dumbledore said.

"About time, don't you think?" Ginny said.

Harriet and Neville nodded.

"Thank you." Harriet said to Madam Pumfrey.

"Shut up." Hermione said while Harriet and Neville smirked at her.

The next day Ron was staring at Astrid when snow started to come.

"Stop it Ron. You're making it snow." Hermione said.

Harriet got all the snow off the table.

"Tell me why I broke up with Lavender again." Ron said.

"Well, she came to visit you in the hospital. And you, talked. I don't believe it was a particular long conversation." Hermione said.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm bloody thrilled to be shot of her's. She seems a bit, put out." Ron said.

"Yes, she does doesn't she? You say you don't remember anything from that night? Anything at all?" Hermione said.

"There is something. It can't be. I was completely boggled, didn't I?"

Hermione saw Katie walk by.

"Harriet, It's Katie. Katie Bell."

She shut her book and stood up.

"Katie, how are you?" she asked.

"I know you're going to ask Harriet. But I don't know who cursed me. I've been trying to remember, I just can't." Katie said.

"Katie."

Then Harriet turned around and saw Malfoy. Malfoy turned around and rushed to the bathroom.

Harriet followed him quickly.

When she got there she heard him crying a little.

"I know what you did Malfoy. You hexed her didn't you?"

Then Malfoy aimed a spell at her but missed.

Then Harriet did the same thing.

After she got away from the next one she said,

_"Sectumsempra!"_

Then she walked over to Malfoy and saw him bleeding. Snape came out of nowhere and looked at him for a second but then walked over to Malfoy.

Later that night Harriet, Ron, Neville and Hermione were in the common room.

"You have to get rid of it. Today." Neville said.

So they stood up. Then they left the room and headed somewhere.

"Take my hand." he said.

When they got there Harriet noticed where they were.

"The Room of Requirements." she said.

"We need to hide the half-blood prince's book. Where you and nobody else can find it." he said.

Then they heard something.

"What was that?" they said together.

"See, you never know what might happen here. Alright, close your eyes."

She closed them and he put them somewhere and then he came back. When he came back he put his mouth on Harriet's and then they kissed each other.


	15. Chapter 15

The next day Harriet was talking to Ron.

"Did you and Neville do it then? You know, hide the book?" Ron said.

"What? Oh, yeah." she said.

They saw Slughorn walk by.

"Still no luck with Slughorn huh?"

"Liquid Luck!" Harriet said.

So they headed to the common room and sat down. Then Harriet swallowed it and the other three looked at her.

"Well, how do you feel?" Neville asked.

"Excellent, really excellent!" she said.

"Remember, Slughorn usually leaves early, goes for a walk and then goes back to his office." Hermione said.

"Right. I'm going to visit Hagrid." she said.

"What? No Harriet we've got to speak to Slughorn!" Hermione said.

"I know but I have a really good feeling that we need to go see him. You understand?"

"No." the three said.

"Well trust me, I know what I'm doing. Or, Felix does."

So she left. When she left the room she started to head to Hagrid's. When she was close to his hut she saw Slughorn at Professor Sprout's plants. She walked over to him.

When she got there she made him jump.

"Ahh! Oh, Harriet I thought you were Professor Sprout." he said.

"Sorry about that sir. I should have coughed before we did that. You probably thought I were Professor Sprout. Definitely." she said.

"What makes you think?" he said.

"Your behavior sir."

"Exactly how did you two get out of the castle?"

"Oh through the front door sir. I was on my way to visit Hagrid. You see he's a very dear friend to me. So if you'll excuse me I'll be going now." she said.

"Harriet!"

"Sir?" she said.

"It's nearly night fall!"

"Well why don't you come along sir?"

So they started to leave and head to Hagrid.

"Harriet! I must consider going back to the school!" he said following them.

"I haven't seen him in a few weeks sir and since it's nice out I'm still going to do it." she said.

When they got there they saw Hagrid standing there with Aragog in front of him.

He sniffled. "Horace."

"Merlin's beard! Is that an actual Acromantula?" he asked.

"A dead one, I think sir." Harriet said.

"Good God. How exactly did you manage to kill it?" Slughorn asked.

"Kill it? He's my oldest friend he was." Hagrid said.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't-"

"It's alright. 'Sniffle' magnificent he was, just magnificent."

"Not to mention the pinchers." Harriet said.

"Yeah an' That to."

"Would you like me to say a few words?" Slughorn asked.

"Yes." Hagrid said.

"Farewell,"

"Aragog."

"Farewell, Aragog. King of the arachnids. Your body will decay... but your spirit lingers on and your human friends find solace, the loss they have sustained."

After that they headed to Hagrid's hut.

"Laid to rest, And his wand, snapped in two, Which was sad." Hagrid and Slughorn sang together.

Harriet started clapping.

"I had him from an egg you see. Tiny little thing he was when he hatched. No bigger than a Pekingese. A Pekingese, mind you." Hagrid said.

"I once had a fish, Francis he was called. He was very dear to me. Then one day, poof! He was gone."

"That's odd." Hagrid said.

"Yes very odd. But that's life! I suppose you go along with and then out of nowhere, poof!"

"Poof!" Hagrid said.

"Poof." Harriet said.

Then Hagrid was out of it and asleep.

"It was a student that gave me Francis. I saw a bow on my desk."

The two of them sat there quietly for a few minutes. Then Slughorn said something.

"I know why you're here, but I can't help you. It would ruin me." he said.

"Do you know why I survived sir? The night I got this." she started and pointed at her scar. "Because her love was to powerful was more powerful than Voldemort."

"Don't say his name." he said waving his hand.

"I'm not afraid of the name Professor. I'm going to tell you something. Something people have only guessed at."

She stood up and walked over to him.

"It's true. I am the Chosen One. Only I can destroy him and in order for me to do that I need to know what Tom Riddle asked you and what you told him."

He shook his head.

"Be brave Professor, be brave like my mother. Other wise you disgrace her. Other why's she died for nothing."

He started to take out a pensive and his wand.

"Please don't blame me, I had know idea what he was doing." he said and took out the memory.

While his hand shook Harriet held onto it to calm him down.


	16. Chapter 16

When she got back to school she headed to Dumbledore's office.

"Sir, I got the memory we needed." Harriet said.

"Excellent! Harriet, this is spectacular news! Very well done indeed! I knew you could do it!" Dumbledore said smiling.

So he put down the memory and then they went inside.

_"I was in the library the other day. In the restricted section... and I read something rather odd about this rare magic. It's called, as I understand it, a Horcrux." Tom said._

_"I beg your pardon?" Slughorn said._

_"Horcrux. I came across the term while reading... and I didn't fully understand it."_

_"I'm not sure what you were reading, Tom, but this is very dark stuff. Very dark, indeed."_

_"Which is... why I came to you."_

_"A horcrux is an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul." he started to explain._

_"But I don't understand how that works, sir. One splits one's soul and hides part of it in an object."_

_"By doing so, you are protected should you be attacked and your body destroyed."_

_"Protected? That part of your soul which is hidden lives on. In other words, you cannot die."_

_"And how does one splits his soul, sir?"_

_Harriet noticed Tom playing with the ring._

_"I think you already know the answer to that, Tom."_

_"Murder."_

_"Yes, killing rips the soul apart and it is a violation against nature."_

_"Can you only split the soul once? For instance, isn't seven-"_

_"Seven? Merlin's beard, Tom Isn't it bad enough to consider killing one person? To rip the soul in seven pieces! This is all hypothetical, isn't it, Tom? All academic?"_

_He turned around and looked at him._

_"Of course, sir. It'll be our little secret."_

Then they were out of it.

"Sir?" she started.

Dumbledore raised his hand.

"This is beyond what I imagined." he said.

"Do you mean sir, that he succeeded?"

"Oh yes, he succeeded. And not just once."

He headed to his desk.

"What are they exactly?"

"Could be anything. A ring for example."

He pushed up the ring.

"Or a book."

Then he picked up the book.

"Tom Riddle's diary." Harriet said.

_'I knew something wasn't right. Thank god I've been studying dark magic lately.'_ she thought.

"It's a horcrux yes. Four years ago when you saved Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets the memory was scared when you were destroying it. After that you brought me this. I knew it then was a very dark and powerful object. Until tonight I had no idea how powerful."

"And the ring?"

"Belonged to his mother. It was different to find but even more difficult to destroy."

"But if we can find and destroy each horcrux we can destroy Voldemort. How could you find and destroy them? They could be anywhere!" Harriet said.

"True, but magic, especially dark magic can leave a trace."

"It's where you've been going sir. Isn't it? When you leave school?"

"Yes. And I think I might have found another one. But this time I can't hope to destroy it alone."

He looked at Harriet.

"Once again I must ask to much of you."

She looked back at Dumbledore and nodded.


	17. Chapter 17

While Harriet headed to meet up with Dumbledore she heard him and Snape.

"Did you _ever_ cross your brilliant mind that I don't want to _do_ this anymore? That you ask to much?" Snape said.

"Whether it has or hasn't is irrelevant. I will not negotiate with you, Severus. You agreed. Nothing more to discuss." Dumbledore said.

So Snape left and then looked at Harriet. Then continued to leave.

After that Harriet headed to Dumbledore.

"Oh Harriet. You know, I forgot how much you have grown. At times I still see the small girl I trained a bit and visited."

She smiled.

"Forgive my mawkishness you. I'm an old man." he said.

"You still look the same to me sir." she said.

"Just like your mother you are unfailingly kind. A trait people never fail to undervalue, I'm afraid. The place to which we journey tonight is extremely dangerous. I promise you for the company of me and I stand by that promise. But there's one condition. You must obey every command I give you without question."

"Yes sir." she said.

"You understand what I'm saying right? Should I tell you to run, you run. Should I tell you to hide you hide. Should I tell you to leave me here and protect yourselves you do so. Your word Harriet."

"My word." she said.

"Good, now we're going to be apparating to get to where we will."

"Sir, I don't have an apparation license yet. My test is next week."

"Take my arms then. And good luck on your test next week." Dumbledore said.

So she took his hand and then they were gone.

A few seconds later they were on a rock in the ocean across from a cave.

When they got across the water and off the ocean Dumbledore looked around.

"This is the place. Oh yes." he said.

Then he took out a knife and started cutting his hand.

"Sir." Harriet said.

"In order to gain passages payment must be made." he said.

"You should have let me sir."

"Oh no Harriet. Your blood is more precious than mine." he said.

Then he put his hand and waved it against the wall.

When it was open they walked over to where it was close.

When they got there they looked at what's across from them.

Dumbledore made some light go to it.

"There it is. The question is how do we get there?"

"Perhaps accio would work?" Harriet said.

"Good idea, why don't you try Harriet." Dumbledore said.

"OK, _accio!_"

It didn't work.

"Hmm, good try Harriet." he said.

Then he thought of something and put his hand in front of the water.

Then something started to come out.

"Harriet if you will."

She started pulling the string and the boat got closer. So they went into it and headed across the water.

When they got there they helped each other up to the rocks.

"Do you think this is the horcrux sir?" she said.

"Oh yes. The question is how?" Dumbledore said.

Then he saw the cup and picked it up.

"You remember the conditions on which I brought you with me? This potion might paralyze me. I may risk to get what I'm here. It'd cause me so much pain that I'd beg for relief. It's your job, Harriet to make sure I keep drinking this potion. Even if you have to force it down my throat. Understood?"

"Why can't I drink it sir?" she asked.

"Because I am much older. You're in good health Harriet."

Then he picked some up and put it in his mouth. He started shaking a bit.

"Professor!"

Harriet looked at the cup and got some more.

"You have to keep drinking like you said, remember?" she said.

"Stop." Dumbledore said.

"I will stop. But only- only if you keep drinking."

Then she put some in his mouth.

"Don't make me- Kill me." he said fighting her hand.

"I'm sorry, sir."

"Kill me! All my fault. My fault." he said.

Finally she was on the last one.

"Just one more, sir. One more, I promise. I promise I'll do what you say." she said.

"No, no."

"I promise!" she said.

So Dumbledore opened his mouth and Harriet put it in his mouth. Harriet headed over to the empty shelf while then helped Dumbledore sit up.

"We did it sir! We did it."

"Harriet, water. Water." Dumbledore said.

"Water."

She put the locket in her pocket and took out her wand.

_"Aguamenti!"_

Then some water came but didn't work.

Then she turned around and headed to the lake and put the cup in it.

When she had water in the cup she was grabbed by people. She got them off.

_"Lumos maxima!"_

Then she saw bodies and started aiming at them_._

_"Stupefy! Stupefy! Sectumsempra!"_

"Harriet..." Dumbledore said reaching for his wand.

"Incarcerous! Stupefy!"

"Harriet... Harriet..."

_"Partis Temporus!"_

Then she was underwater and trying to get up to the air but had trouble. She still didn't know how to swim. Suddenly fire started out of nowhere.

She found something to grab then was up in the air, coughing then looked behind herself then saw Dumbledore.

"Come on."

So she grabbed Dumbledore's hands and worked as hard as she could to get them back.


	18. Chapter 18

A few seconds later they were in the astronomy Tower.

"We have to get you to the hospital wing sir. To Madam Pomfrey." she said tired.

"No, Severus, get Severus." Dumbledore said.

"But sir."

"Harriet do what I say, trust me." he said interrupting her.

So she headed to the stairs.

When she was on her way there she heard Dumbledore say something.

"Good evening Draco."

"Who were you just talking to?" Malfoy said.

"I was just talking to myself. Have you always been to yourself Draco? Draco, you are assassin."

"How do you know what I am? I've done things that shock you."

"Oh, like cursing Katie Bell and hoping that in return she would bear a cursed necklace to me? Like replacing a bottle of mead with one lace with poison. Forgive me, Draco, I cannot help feel these actions are so weak that your... heart can't really have been in." Dumbledore said.

"He trust me. I was chosen!" Malfoy said and took out his mark.

"I shall make it easy for you." Dumbledore said.

_"Expelliarmus!"_

Then Dumbledore's wand fell out of his hand.

"Very good, very good. You're not alone. There are others. How?"

"The vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirements. I've been mending it."

"I'm guessing it has a sister."

"A twin. In Borgin and Burkes. They form a passage." Malfoy said.

"Ingenious. Draco, years ago, I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices. Please let me help you."

"I don't want your help. Don't you understand? I have to do this. I have to kill you. Or he's gonna kill me." he said scared.

"Well look who we have here. Well done Draco." Bellatrix said.

Harriet pointed her wand but then saw Snape. He put a finger on his lips telling her to stay quiet. So she looked back up.

"Good evening, Bellatrix. I think introductions aren't over, don't you?" Dumbledore said.

"Love to, Albus, but I'm afraid we're on a bit of tight schedule. Do it!" she said.

"He doesn't have the stomach. Just like his father. Let me finish him in my own way." someone else said.

"No, the Dark Lord was clear the boy has to do it. This is your moment, Draco. Do it! Go on, Draco, now!" Bellatrix said.

"No." Snape said.

"Severus. Please..." Dumbledore said.

He took out his wand and said,

_"Avada Kedavra."_

Harriet stood there in shock.

Then she came back and started running after Snape.

When she got there Bellatrix was starting Hagrid's hut on fire.

"Snape!" she yelled.

He turned around and saw Harriet running to him.

"He trusted you!" she yelled.

"Go on!" Snape said to Bellatrix.

_"Incarcerous!"_ she yelled.

He just waved the spell away from himself with his wand.

"Fight back, you coward! Fight back!"

Then Bellatrix aimed a curse at Harriet.

"No, she belongs to the Dark Lord." Snape said.

She frowned and turned around.

_"Sectumsempra!"_ she yelled.

Snape just pushed it back like before.

"You dare use my own spells against me?"

Harriet sat up.

"Yes Potter, _I'm_ the halfblood Prince."

When Snape was gone Harriet walked to Dumbledore's body.

When she got there she sat down next to him and started crying a little. Then Neville came over and grabbed her side and she cried on his shoulder.

McGonagall raised her wand and some light went off.

Everyone else did the same thing.

The next day Harriet was in Dumbledore's office.

"Potter." someone said.

She turned around and saw McGonagall.

"Enlighten of recent events, if you should have the need to talk to someone..."

Harriet started leaving.

"You should know," She looked at her and listened. "You meant a great deal to him."

Later that night Harriet, Ron, Neville and Hermione were outside on the balcony.

"Did you think he would have done it, Draco?" Hermione asked.

"No. No he was lowering his wand. It was Snape. It was always Snape. But I did nothing." Harriet said.

She handed Hermione the locket.

"It's fake. Open it." she said.

She opened it and unfolded the paper.

_"To the Dark Lord, _

_ I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more. _

_ R.A.B _

"R.A.B?" she said.

"I don't know. But wherever they are they have the real horcrux. Which means it was all a waste." Harriet said.

Then they turned around and leaned on arm.

"I'm not coming back Hermione. I've got to finish whatever Dumbledore started. And I don't know where that will leave me. But I'll let you know where I am when I can." Harriet said.

"I've always admired your courage, Harriet. But sometimes, you can be really thick. You don't really think you're going to be able to find all those horcruxes by yourself, do you? You _need_ us, Harriet." Hermione said.

She just sat there quietly and looked at the school.

"I never realized how beautiful this place was." Harriet said.

_'Even though I call it home.'_ she thought.

Then they saw Fawkes flying by.

They were going to be busy next year. But to end the war they'll do anything.


End file.
